The Kings play a Game? By Ninnin
by zed019
Summary: The Campiones are individuals whose actions cannot be predicted with common logic. Also known as Kings and Godslayers they are people who hold unimaginable power and influence. What happens when they decide to play in the Virtual World of Royal Road? A crossover of LMS and Campione. Warning: spoilers read at your own risk. Story is not mine but from Ninnin.
1. Chapter 1

**An:** This story is not mine and I make no claims of it. This story belongs to Ninnin from royal road and credit should go to him/her. I only want to share this story to you all. Should the author not want this story posted, this story will be deleted.

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

That human kept opposing him with horrifying tenacity.

Using his privileges as the Divine Saint Knight of the order of Embinyu, he drained his once vast stores of mana strengthening his special link to the sealed Chaos dragon Ausoletto and flooding himself with divine aura which numbed his sense of pain and spiraled like a cloak around him.

He was the one chosen by the Godly dragon to channel its almighty powers, thus he was a warrior who personified the destructive might of dragons. His opponent, although hard to believe, was no hero. Clad in a battered traveler's outfit, the blond mortal did not even have a class.

But the iron sword swung by that human showed irritatingly splendid skill. He begrudgedly had to commend the martial arts that man had learnt.

"We will finish this soon, you who are destined to die. However hard you try to fight, it will not change my victory. The power of that Galle, which sustained you in this battle, has all but vanished. He passed, leaving you nothing but small remnants of his power.

However, as punishment for your assault on our holy order I will not let you join him in death, for you will be sacrificed to the Embinyu!"

Thrust, slash, swipe.

The human's swordsmanship was ever-changing. There was not a single mediocre attack.

But he did not bother with them anymore, they all dealt negligible damage now. Completely casting away any notion of defence, he raised his golden Godly sword and retaliated with lightning speed.

To them the concept of time had vanished at some point in their battle. They fought constantly in motion. Each trying their hardest to slay the other.

Each of his strike held unimaginably concentrated power. Every time his sword swung, the landscape was changed. Stone trees were shattered and sent flying. Corresponding slash marks could be seen on the valley walls. Yet, without exception, the man had ultilised a combination of his own skill, luck and the once numerous stone obstacles on the battlefield to avoid the each strike with minimal movements.

Gradually the human had cast technique aside and simply thrust the sword. Aiming at his body, he thrust out the blade with a clear heart.

Again and again, he foolishly repeated it. With a clear heart. With a clear mind. Not thinking, not realising the futility of his struggle, not feeling anything.

With a final swing of his sword, he leapt back from the melee. He smiled. He had grown respect for the human in this battle during their long battle. A bit.

But, his last swing had completely flattened out the battlefield. With that the human could no longer ultitise it to evade his attacks.

"Galle, the god of battle, of whom you served has been exorcised and you can no longer avoid my attacks. Therefore, mortal, your hope has already vanished."

"...Nahh. We're just starting. With my last hit I felt that my preparations are over. Now I can finally fight for real."

So, he was striving for victory, fighting to the very end, he thought. Commendable spirit. It was truly magnificent fearlessness. Or maybe he was just a moron. Either way he would become valuable sacrifice to the Embinyu

Casually, he lifted the two-handed sword and activated his footstep skill with the last of his mana, rushing forth to crush the human with his divine aura.

The human casually took a stance and stabbed at his arm as if to cripple him and cancel the blow.

It wouldn't work. It was his victory. The human's weapon was too weak and the human lacked the strength to even harm him.

Just as his sword as about to decapitate the human, he felt a sharp pain as a magic seal of some sort activated and the iron sword pierced through both his arms forcing him to drop his weapon.

"Gaahhh!"

**Your arms have been crippled and cannot move**

Stunned and confused he stood frozen from the sudden pain.

Taking advantage of this, the human landed a series of rapid attacks aimed his legs.

Enraged, he quickly recovered and tried to headbutt the human. But just before he could carry out his attempthis legs gave way and he collapsed face first into the ground with a thump.

**You left thigh has been pieced. Mobility has been severely reduced**

**Your right kneecap has been shattered. Mobility is non-existent**

"GAAHH! HOW? What sorcery is this?!" he demanded as he laid face first in the ground.

"Phew! That was the most fun I've had in ages"

"ANSWER ME MORTAL! How did you maim my body?"

"A simple trick really, if you hit the same point over and over again you deal additional damage. I figured it would work that same for you so I kept hitting the few points because I knew you would fall eventually. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't stored enough damage before my blessing wore off though."

"Y Y You monster! Saying that is one thing but being able to actually to that to me–"

"I don't want to hear that coming from you! It was a close call anyway my sword just broke but you can't do anything now can you? "

Frantically, he tried to roll away but experienced a chilling, oppressive sensation which prevented him from moving.

**You were hit by The Might of the Ruler and you are unable to move**  
**- Morale has dropped**  
**- All combat related stats dropped**  
**- Fighting Spirit has dropped additionally**  
**- Skills are likely to fail**  
**- Divine Possession has been dispelled**

"Well, looks like I'll have to do this barehanded now."

HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT

With each hit, he felt an increasing amount of pain.

HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT

He could not believe it. He had enough power to put up a fight against Bar Khan and his endless undead army but yet against a mere adventurer he had been defeated.

HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT HIT

What was more, he was completely and utterly immobilised, deprived of even the right to scream in pain.

This truly went against common sense.

HIT

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha this game was more fun than I expected"

The laughter of the diabolical devil of a human was the last thing he heard before he died.

The Embinyu priest scrambled desperately away, clutching at a wound in his side. Trembling, he took out the necessary ingredients and hurriedly constructed a teleportation gate desperate to get away from the blond devil who had single handily massacred the elite Embinyu party in the Forest of Stone.

The priest had been blown away during the fight but had survived to witness the ridiculous victory the "human" had obtained. The battle had lasted over three days making it a mystery how the human had sustained himself without food, water or rest.

After slaying the Embinyu's Divine Saint Knight a bright light had engulfed the blond human signifying a change in class. Additionally numerous shining spheres of light had descended spiralling from the heavens and had then too engulfed the human.

This phenomenon was something the priest and always believed to be myth. But now, witnessed it himself he could only tremble in fear and run.

As the teleport gate opened and warped him away, the priest prayed with all his heart that he would never meet the blonde man again.

For in his hands, that man now wielded the powers of…  
…a godslaying devil.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

"So you want to join Royal Road" Amakasu said a matter-of-factly from across the café table. The sloppily dressed man wore a tattered, western suit; he was quite young, appearing around twenty years of age, and didn't look very suave for a government worker.

"Well it's not a matter of wanting to join, it's more like I'm being forced to" Kusanagi Godou argued back. "If I don't join then that idiot Doni might actually come to Japan"

"And that could be a problem," added Erica next to him. With her bright blond hair similar to a dazzling crown and beauty was far greater than other girls, Godou could almost feel himself being shredded by the glares of the other males in the shop. "As we all know a catastrophe of all sorts is bound to occur when two kings meet. Given Godou's past record and Lord Salvatore personality, I think it is more than likely that something in Tokyo will be annihilated when the two meet again."

Sensing that the conversation was veering into a dangerous direction, Godou tried to steer the conversation onto safer ground.

"That aside what is Royal Road? I've never heard of it before"

***  
Earlier that day a phone call had reached the Kusanagi residence. And as no-one else was around Godou had answered it.

"Hello?"

"This voice, is it Godou? It's been a while, how are you, my friend?"

It was a slightly familiar voice heard from before, in fact it was a voice Godou didn't want to hear coming from the receiver.

A complete waste of a voice with such depth.

"I'm sorry you have the wrong number."

Godou immediately put down the receiver and hung up the phone.

"Damn what does he want now!?"

Godou who usually did not pray for the misfortune of others, felt like this was one of those exceptions.

Just to be safe, he prepared himself to take the battery out of his phone. Temporarily avoiding phone calls was an acceptable sacrifice for this cause.

However, his cellphone began to ring before could do so.

"Damn"

Godou prepared himself and pressed the button to pick up the call.

"Suddenly hanging up the phone, that's too cruel!"

"You bastard. What do you want now?"

'You're such a fool. Isn't it natural for good friends to talk to each other occasionally?'

If this was a face to face conversation, then he'd probably be doing things like winking as well.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and handsome. A bright expression on his proper face, and extremely friendly. The appearance of an elegant gentleman, but in reality, the strongest warrior possessing a body of steel—

"Hey Salvatore Doni, we don't really count as friends you know."

"Hmph, please do not use "don't really count" to describe our relationship. Didn't I say already, that we are great friends?"

"If that's what you think, please look up the dictionary definition for the word 'friend' one thousand times before you call again."

Salvatore Doni.

A twenty-four-year-old Italian, as well as the [The King of Swords].

He possessed massive influence centered around southern Europe, and had defeated countless gods. In terms of age and experience, he would count as Godou's senior.

However, Godou had no intention of using honorifics with this guy.

Godou himself found it unbelievable, since he would usually interact with elders with the appropriate attitude and word choice.

However, it was entirely different when facing this man. From the depths of his heart, a certain subtle feeling of opposition prevented it.

"Hey hey, the one who doesn't understand friendship is you. That is totally shameful for a Japanese."

"What does nationality have to do with it?"

"Of course it does. I remember that "write letters to enemies, and predict the thoughts of friends" is a Japanese saying. It was written clearly in some Japanese literature I read before… Ah! I get it you're just what the Japanese call a tsundere right?"

"Stop misunderstanding Japanese culture! Uhh... why do I get the feeling that I've already had this conversation with you?"

Godou felt that there must be some mistake in Doni's words but had given up arguing. This was a man full of exaggerated delusions and a total medieval chivalry romantic, better stay away from him.

"Why are you calling me now anyway?" Godou pressed.

"Recently I played a good game with strong opponents. Battling out to the death and fighting me with fierce burning battle spirit—I responded with all my strength to these opponents."

"And your point is?"

"However the game will eventually become boring so I want you to join me and liven it up."

"No way in hell am I playing a game with you!" An instant cold refusal

"That's mean! I didn't want it to come to this but it looks like I'll have to come to Japan to change your mind "

"Don't you dare! Fine! I'm join you in that stupid game" Godou could still remember the disasters that occurred the last time another Campione had paid him a visit. That must be avoided at all costs!

"I knew you would understand. Besides I already had the necessary things ordered for you anyway. They should be arriving any minute now. I'm in the Rosenheim Kingdom by the way"

***  
Surely enough, a package come for Godou soon after. Completely lost on what to do next, Godou had immediately requested the assistance of the one he thought would have the most knowledge on recent games (Amakasu) and arranged to meet up in their usual hangout, a maid café called the Peerless Statesman. On the way there, Godou had met up with Erica who had decided to accompany him thus leading to the current situation.

"Well I'm not surprised. It's a fairly new game internationally but has a stronghold of support from its Korean audience." Amakasu explained rather enthusiastically. "It's basically MMO that uses revolutionary Virtual Reality technology to send players to a virtual world. It's a good game really."

"Come to think of it, I remember reading something about that in the letters my uncle sent me" Erica said. "Apparently, the Europe magi are in high spirits as they've finally found something to confine Lord Salvatore's childish antics in. I wonder if we could use this as therapy to cure Godou's impulses"

"I don't run around causing trouble like that idiot!" Godou frantically tried to defend himself but it was already too late.

"Maybe not but you do tend to lose your sense of self-control in the midst of battle" Erica smiled at him. It was a terrifying devil's smile.

"To date haven't you destroyed Rome's famed Colosseum, Tokyo Tower, the San Francesco di Paola church, the Hamarikyu Gardens, a small island and several other public places? I vaguely remember having all the paperwork about that being pushed on to me" Amakasu suddenly butted in, an identical grin appearing on his face."

"Frankly I think, this is game is a good idea. If we let you rampage in the virtual world maybe you will cause less damage to the real world. Well, at least this way you'll stop capturing every girl you meet. Mutter mutter…" Erica continued.

"Uh" Overcome with regret from the memories of the past Godou could say nothing in his defence.

"Well the best way to learn is to play the actual game itself" Amakasu said getting back to bussiness, "but there are a few things I should tell you to do…"

A few hours later, Godou stood in front of the capsule he had finally finished setting up.

"Well this is it"

And promptly he placed it on his head and turned it on.

The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?

When Godou was connected to Royal Road, the first sound that reached his ears was a feminine voice.

He looked around to see who had spoken to him, but there was no one else; a space within the universe. Then he realised that he was in the middle of the activation process of a new account.

"Yes"

**— Select the name of your avatar—**

"Ah… I guess I'll just go with [Godou] then"

**— Select your gender from male, female or neutral —**

"Male"

**— Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine —**

"Human"

**- You may alter your appearance —**

"Can I see how I look?"

Immediately Godou saw a life sized version of himself materialise.

His black hair, black eyes, 180cm height and average looks had been recreated with surprising detail. Vaguely, Godou wondered why body replication to such a degree was legal.

"The way I am."

**— Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road—**

"I know." This was one of the many things he had learnt from Amakasu earlier.

**— Select a city and kingdom you want to start —**

"Anywhere apart from the Rosenheim Kingdom"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Flash!

"Looking for strong tanks to join the party!"

"Did you hear about how church members keep disappearing?"

"Selling leather and metal armour! They're mostly undamaged and give bonuses!"

"Anyone hunting in the Northern Plains?"

A collection of noise assaulted Godou as he appeared in a town square of some sort. There were people everywhere. It was he had suddenly stepped into Tokyo during its peak hour. Except that the people wore armour and came from all nationalities. It was a slightly disorienting feeling.

"So this is Virtual Reality. Its more realistic then I expected." He remarked quietly to himself.

He looked for a suitable place to sit so that he could get used to this feeling. He found an unoccupied bench in front of a pub of some kind and sat on it observing the people in the square.

Unlike most beginners, Godou was not heavily affected by the culture shock of suddenly appearing in a new world. He attributed this to his past experiences travelling overseas. As a child, Godou had been mostly raised by his travel-loving charismatic grandfather and now deceased grandmother.

Godou's grandfather used to be a professor in folkloristics and had the talent of mingling with foreign communities like a native. Back when he was still in active research, he had been able to integrate himself into isolated village communities quickly, built good relationships with the villagers and even acquire a few village secrets which are usually not told to outsiders.

Godou had often accompanied his grandfather on overseas trips and was also often accidentally (Godou hoped) abandoned by his grandfather without food, water or money and a language barrier for a few days. Thus, Godou had been forced to inherit his grandfather's skill in this area.

Soon Godou realised that people in the game could be divided into two categories: players and NPCs. At first, Godou hadn't realised this as he hadn't expected the artificial intelligence of the game to be so detailed. It was almost as if they were actual people.

While he was observing, Godou also started experimenting with the system commands Amakasu had told him, adjusting the settings to suit his preferences.

One of the commands had shown him his current inventory which contained a canteen and 10 pieces of rye bread which Godou had assumed was food.

Another command had given him a pop up message of his character information which read:

**Character Name:Godou**

**Alignment:None**

**Level:1**

**Class:Classless**

**Title:None**

**Reputation:0**

**Health:100**

**Mana:100**

**Strength:10**

**Agility:10**

**Wisdom:10**

**Intellect:10**

**Leadership:5**

**Luck:5**

**Attack:3**

**Defence0**

**Magical Resistance:None**

"Playing a game might actually have its benefits. In a game, things like magic and special powers are well known and available to everyone. Ridiculous powers like what I have in reality are common place in a world like this so I can finally be 'normal'." Godou muttered to himself.

Thinking back on this, Godou thought that it was kind of sad that he could only achieve normality in a virtual world where everyone has powers.

"Well time to go exploring" said Godou standing up. Amakasu had told him that new players were confined to their starting town in the first four weeks of game time. However, it never hurt to know the geography of the area.

"It would probably be useful in case I'm suddenly challeng-… I hadn't realised that this mindset had rubbed so deeply into me already" Godou couldn't believe that he had actually almost said that but he really couldn't help thinking that way.

Ever since obtaining his powers his had rarely gone through a month without getting involved in a conflict of some sort. And often that conflict had resulted in something important being destroyed.

Pushing the dark thoughts away, Godou took a step forward. First he would have to find out where he was and then he would–

"Hold on a second lad" A gruff voice from behind him called out.

Godou turned around. It was the bartender of the pub behind him who had called him.

"Come over here"

Godou complied and walked up to the counter.

"What is it Ossan?" (Ossan=old man in Japanese...I think)

"Why don't we play a little game? As you can see we're a little understaffed here so I'll roll these two regular dices and if the total of the numbers on the die is less than 5 then you're free to go, but if it's more then you have to work here until the end of the day."

"Wha-"

Ding!

**The Desperate Bartender's Unreasonable Request**

**Defeat the bartender's dice challenge by obtaining the total sum less than five on two dices.**

**Difficulty: F**

**Restrictions:**  
**Somebody who doesn't look busy**  
**If you refuse the bartender will forcefully abduct you and force you to work anyway.**

**Rewards:**  
**Being able to leave**  
**+10 Luck**  
**+ 1 FAME**  
**Penalties:**  
**If you lose then you will have to work for the bartender for one day.**

A bit taken aback by the sudden request, Godou couldn't see any way out of it unless he agreed.

"Yeaah… Okay"

The barkeeper rolled the two dices. It was a one and a three.

"Looks like I'm free do go"

"Hang on! Best out of five!" the barkeeper hastily said.

He rolled the dices again. Revealing a two and a one.

And again. A one and a one.

"Well, since I won three out of the five matches I can go right?"

"No! You have to win all five matches"

The dices rolled again. A two and a two.

And again. A one and a two.

Ding!

**-Luck increased by 1 points**

**-You completed the Quest!**  
**EXP was gained**  
**Luck increased by 10 points**  
**Fame increased by 1 point**

Godou was surprised with this. He hadn't expected his ridiculous luck from reality to still apply in a game.

"What the hell! What kind of punishment is this!" exclaimed the bartender as he dropped to his knees.

"I can't believe someone was actually able to win this sort of game" remarked one of the other customers in the bar.

"Yeah that was ridiculous"

"Umm actually I don't have anything to do right now do if it's just for a day then I think I'll be able to fill in for you" Godou said, pitying the bartender.

"Really?" The old bartender suddenly looked up to him with puppy dog eyes. It was an indescribable feeling.

"Yeah…" Vaguely, Godou saw a resemblance between the bartender and his eccentric classmate friends who were also known as "the Three Idiots".

Ding!

You have accept the temporary job at Mark's Pub  
Pay: 5 coppers per hour

"Thanks you're a real life-saver, frankly I wasn't sure what I'd do when part of my staff when missing" said the bartender, looking professional again. "The name's Mark by the way"

"I am Kusan... I am Godou" He almost forgot this was a game.

"Well Godou, let me teach you how to work the machines and then I can get you working"

"Ah… actually I've done a similar job to this before" Godou said. He had worked in a bar as one of his many part-time jobs.

"Oh really, that makes things easier then. You can show me by taking the next order then"

After he had made sure that Godou's skills were up to a satisfactory level, Mark joined him and helped.

The rest of the day passed quickly for Godou. From the gossiping of the customers, Godou had deduced that he was currently in Tellap town in the Kallamore Kingdom. He had also learnt that the Kallamore Kingdom was a small kingdom surrounded by the Senbain mountains.

Apparently, beginners like himself were rare in Kallamore as it was a precarious place to start as suffered from assaults from large hordes of monsters on a weekly basis and newbies would often die very easily before they could become strong enough to defend themselves. The only reason why Kallamore still existed in the face of all the monster raids was because it's strong military.

It also turned out that Kallamore's pubs very popular places for the defenders to hang out. A pub was a place where you could boast about having fought with no regret and to unfold your tensions, or simply get a drink before going off to the next defending battle.

The pubs were the most attended spots for those that defended Senbain to release their experiences. As a result of this, pubs were very competitive with each other which explained why Mark was so desperate to recruit a helper. Pubs were also, to Godou's surprise, a gambling hotspot for the defenders. Through the defenders were only allowed to clip in small amounts of money, gambling turned out to be another method the defenders used to relieve stress.

From time to time during his shift, Godou himself had been challenged to matches by customers, both players and NPCs who had witnessed his victory with in the dice challenge and sought to prove that it was only a fluke. However, Godou's tenacity for victory could not be denied and he won every single match based on pure luck.

At first, they thought Godou was cheating but after winning without so much as touching the dice and standing him 5 metres away from the game legends of his unrivalled luck were beginning to spread. Conversely, these matches also served to further increase Godou's luck stat. Though, Godou was now worried that he might be forced to become a participant in gambling marathons by people determined to break his winning streak like in the Kusanagi family gatherings.

Near the end of his shift, an interesting person came in. Instead of the usual armour that the other customers had worn this one wore white robes with a symbol on it and looked like a priest.

"Oh there's a face I haven't seen" The priest remarked when Godou served his order.

"Yeah Godou here saved me from a tough spot by joining in" Mark said. "A really can't thank you enough"

"It's rare to see you thanking someone" said the priest.

"Well it's rare for me to find someone worth thanking. Oh that reminds me, new adventurers like you, Godou, are not allowed to leave the city until you get used to it. Do you have any plans on what you want to do in the time you're stuck here?" Mark asked.

"Not particularly"

"Okay then how bout giving him the basic training and education he needs then, Lexus?" Mark said, talking to the priest. "This his luck and personality he'd make a fine paladin or priest, Freya knows you need new recruits with all the men your losing."

The priest, Lexus, seemed surprised. "That's the first time you've ever recommended someone for me to train."

"Lexus, here, is a scouter for the church of Freya" Mark explained to Godou who had been confused by the proceedings. "And at the very least, Godou could become one of the staff at the church"

"Are you sure Mark?"

"I'm sure, he's polite and mingled with the customers perfectly, no complaints from the customers about him whatsoever. Plus he's lucky."

"This is a dangerous place. Luck can only take you so far"

"Test him then"

"Okay, sorry for leaving you out, Godou, even though the conversation was about you," Lexus said pulling out a coin, "Let's test you luck then. Guess which side the coin will hand on."

Ding!

**The Scouter's Test**

**Seeing is believing so upon hearing about your wondrous luck, Lexus wants a live demonstration. Correctly guess the face the coin will land.**

**Difficultly: F**

**Restrictions:**  
**Recommendation from the Mark**

**Rewards:**  
**+1 Luck**  
**+1 fame**

**Penalties:**  
**None**

Godou wondered why all the quests he got so far had something to do with gambling.

"Okay Lexus-san then I'll go with heads"

Lexus tossed the spinning coin up high in the air nearly brushing the roof.

"Show off" muttered Mark.

It landed on the counter, bounced a few times and rolled, finally falling over to reveal…

Ding!

**You completed the Quest!**  
**Level up!**  
**+ 1 Luck**  
**+1 FAME**

"Oh wow it actually was heads. Even though I biased my throw so that it would land on tails." Lexus unabashedly admitted.

"It was like that for every game I saw him play in" Mark said.

"One must have the blessings of the goddess to achieve such miracles" Lexus proclaimed.

Or the luck of the devil…

"Well, Godou, what do you plan to do when you can leave town?"

"I'm not sure, I'm probably wander around and explore" Godou was fairly certain that adventuring was the whole point of the playing a game.

"Do you plan on joining any large organisations?"

"Not really"

"The world is a dangerous place. Especially around these parts if you're by yourself. Would you like to receive your basic training and education from the church of Freya? In return you'll have to work for us at least until your able to leave."

"Okay" Godou didn't know much about this world. But Lexus's offer was advantageous to him either way.

"Meet me at 9 o'clock in the morning in front of the church of Freya. Mark, you can tell him the way right? Now I have to go back and notify the church that they have a new worker." With that Sam downed the last of his cup and strode out of the pub.

"You know, I used to be an adventurer like you when I was younger, until I was injured fighting monsters. Now I'm just a bartender in a pub. " Mark said as he stared at the door. "Take care on your future travels Godou and make sure it doesn't happen to you."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

"Good Morning Lexus-san"

"Ah, you're here Godou"

Replying to Godou's call was Lexus who was standing next to the open entrance of a large white building. This said building was the church.

Standing next to him as a dark haired teenage boy who was wearing an open collared red and tan robe with a white toga wrapped over and around his torso. A golden pendant hung from his neck. In terms of age this person was probably the same age as Godou? If not older by a few years.

After logging out briefly to get some respite from the Royal Road, Godou had logged back in and by following the directions he received from Mark, he had arrived to find Lexus waiting for him. The time acceleration in virtual reality was useful in this aspect, it was currently 8:42 AM in-game.

"It seems you're early, oh well that means you guys can start earlier," Lexus began, talking to both Godou and the dark haired boy, "Okay, first of all let me explain what you two will be doing. You two are the latest batch of unofficial trainees stationed at this church. Now before we go on any further, let's have some introductions why don't we?"

With that, Lexus lightly pushed the dark haired boy, who seemed a bit indifferent, forward.

Smiling apologetically, the boy said, "My name is Ferrex Dakef, nice to meet you. Just call me Ferrex."

"I am Godou, please take care of me." Godou responded in kind. Ferrex did not seem like a bad person.

"Now that you two have been introduced, let me tell you what's going to happen. Due to various recommendations in high places, this church will be responsible for taking you two through the basic training and the basic education."

Lexus continued with his explanation rushing slightly as he did so. Godou was starting to feel curious on what the basic training and education was, Amakasu had mentioned them in his explanation but he hadn't gone in detail.

"However, since where a bit rushed for time we're going to have to do things a bit differently… Anyways, since you guys are unofficial trainees, you will also have to work shifts in the church as well. After all, the church can't suddenly start giving free training to everyone. So any questions?"

"What do you mean we're short on time? Doesn't have anything to do with that?" Ferrex asked, his expression became blank. A perfect pokerface.

That? What was that?

"I'm just doing what the higher ups tell me to so I'm not sure of the reason myself, personally, I think you're looking into this too deeply. Given all your talent, it seems more probable that we (the church) are hoping that you that you would align yourself with us in the future rather than against us."

"I am thankful for all the church of Freya has done for me but I don't think I am ready to enter the arms of another order just yet"

Ferrex said his reply with the same blank expression.

It seems that Ferrex has a dark past. Godou was curious about it but decided against prying any further.

Instead, he asked, "What type of work will we be doing?"

"Oh don't worry it will just be menial tasks like unpacking boxes or helping out with the other workers in the church. After all, you two will also have to be giving it your all in training," Lexus answered seemingly glad for the change in topic, "Well, any more questions?

"Nope."

"That's all."

"Okay then, follow me!"

Lexus entered the church. Following him, Godou noted that the church was more spacious then it appeared on the outside. The 4m high ceiling amplified this effect. Near the walls were a series of statues, many of them depicting a beautiful woman who he assumed was a major figure in the religion. Light shone brightly through the many coloured glass sheeted windows.

At the back of the room was what appeared to be an altar and in front of that were rows of seats, starting a few metres away from the altar and ending at about halfway across the room. The rows were divided in the middle to allow people to walk directly to the altar. The floors were tiled so that the path to the altar had a different colour than the rest of the floor.

"I know it's a bit overwhelming but you're going to be left behind at this rate" Ferrex muttered behind him.

"What- Oh right, thanks" belatedly, Godou realised that Lexus was now heading towards a flight of stairs to the left of the altar.

Hurrying, they followed Lexus up the flight of stairs to another fairly large room full of shelves and tables. The floor was carpet this time. On each of the shelves were books. Seeing them, Godou felt a sense of nostalgia was he remembered the bookstore his grandmother used to run. Were these books related to the basic education in some way? Godou suspected he knew what the education was now.

"Now, this is here we will begin" Lexus proclaimed, turning round to look at them. "Well, let me be frank with you, gaining knowledge is part of the basic education and reading books is the easiest way to do this. You don't have to read all of them but the more you know the better for you in the future."

So it was just reading books. Oh well, it's not like I can do anything else in the first 4 weeks.

"I'm sorry to say that not many people have the tenaciousness to complete the basic training in this world. This applies for foreigners like you Godou especially. And even less people have the curiosity to find and obtain all the knowledge required for the basic education. "

This basic training must be rigorous. Godou understood the difference between talent and hard work during the time that he was still playing baseball. However, he also knew that the abilities of the talented but could be matched through the stubbornness of never giving up on working hard.

"This might be all well and fine in the other kingdoms, however, Kallamore is different. I'm sure both of you are aware that this is an unforgiving place for the inexperienced."

Thus, Godou vowed to complete the basic training no matter what in order to strengthen his body for whatever powerful enemies he had a nagging suspicion he would have to face.

"Consequently, the basic education we can provide is more organised here than in most other places. The deadline to finish this 3 weeks and I'll come back for you then. Oh an about the work, someone will come and call you when after lunch and Godou, if you have any questions, I'm sure Ferrex can help answer them. Now I have to settle that matter with this and that…"

Muttering, Lexus turned and walked quickly out the door. He seemed like someone who was always legitimately busy. Willing to do so much for his kingdom and faith. So unlike another civil worker Godou knew well.

"All the books you need to read are in this shelf" said Ferrex as he walked up to one of the shelves casually. He scanned the shelf, took a book off it and then moved to a corner of the room, sitting one of the seats at a table to read.

Mimicking him, Godou took a book from the shelf and sat on the opposite side of the table. He opened the book and quickly found himself engrossed in it. The book happened to be the first of a series of biographies of someone who apparently became a famous emperor.

Upon finishing the book a few hours later, the following message appeared to Godou.

**Wisdom has increased by 1 point**

Ignoring it, he when back to the same shelf and was in the process of looking for the next book in the series when a clerk called both Godou and Ferrex out for lunch.

Remembering that he hadn't eaten breakfast yet, Godou eagerly followed the clerk to the kitchen. Although he didn't show it on his face, Ferrex seemed to be in a similar situation since he dropped the book he was reading almost immediately to come down.

After a simple lunch of sandwiches made by the kitchen staff, the two of them were directed to go to the front altar room and help the priests bless travellers coming into the church.

By now, there was a long queue of people coming into through the entrance. This contrasted greatly with how empty Godou had seen the church in the morning. Then going to the priest in charge, Godou and Ferrex were told:

"Providing Blessings to travellers is one service the church does. Since you two have been sent to help us, we'll need you to carry over one of those barrels of holy water in the storeroom whenever we run out"

That begin said, each of the barrels of holy water were quite large and heavy to carry, requiring the maximum effort of both Godou and Ferrex to carry. However that also meant that they only need to carry a barrel every now and then.

Casting blessings seem like a long and arduous task with each blessing taking a few minutes to be completed. Godou watched the process from one of the seats, feeling bored now that his initial interest had subsided.

Next to him, Ferrex watched the process, also seemingly bored. To make conversation Godou asked:

"Do blessing always take this long to perform?"

"Yep pretty much. But then again, the 3 minutes spent performing a blessing can mean the difference between life and death for adventurers fighting in the wilderness."

Ferrex replied seemingly glad for the conversation. Then he asked.

"So how did you get come to be here?"

"I got recommended by a barman who just happened to be a friend of Lexus"

"That seems strange, only people really high up can recommend you to be a unofficially trained by a church. I wonder who that barman is."

"Really? I didn't know that, I guess I'll ask him the next time I see him. Speaking of which how did you get here?"

"Oh, some things happened to me in the past and the church of Freya has been taking care of me since the past 4 years."

"Wouldn't have made more sense if they made you an official trainee then?"

"Well there's not really much difference between what they're giving just and they're doing with their official members though. Actually, I think we're the ones who receive the better training though"

"Hey, we need another barrel of holy water over here, we're almost run out"

One of the priest called out from the altar. Continuing their conversation as they went, Ferrex and Godou carried the barrel over and made their way back to their seats. Gradually, the topic of their conversations became more and more trivial until the priest dismissed them and they were able to go back to the upstairs library.

This patterned continued for three weeks, with Godou logging on to read books, occasionally being called to perform jobs. During this time Godou and Ferrex became close friends.

By the second week, had Ferrex has already finished reading all the books on the basic education shelf and had started reading from some of the other shelves. It seemed that he was looking for specific books the read from and when Godou asked him about it, he had said:

"I'm thinking of becoming a priest later on so I'm looking for books about holy magic."

"Why don't we team up then when all this is over? I don't know where I'm going to go but I'm the type of person who finds it reassuring to have someone I trust watch my back."

"Sure, I'm fine with that, I wasn't sure what I would do after this anyway. But let me say, I won't follow someone who still hasn't completed their basic education yet"

"Hehehe, just you wait, I'll finish these in no time then"

His competitive spirit aroused, Godou embraced himself in trying to complete the basic education as soon as possible.

Reflecting on this, Godou did not have many male friends which he could joke around easily with. Lately, whenever he was at school or fighting a battle of some sort he had was always accompanied by close friends of the opposite sex. Although, he did not dislike interacting with them, there were some things that he could only do with male friends.

Then a few days later, as Godou finished reading the last page of the last book from the shelf, the following messages appeared in front of him.

**Wisdom increased by 1 point**

**Intelligence increase by 1 point**

**Perseverance has increased by 1 point**

**+ 20 FAME**

**+100 MP**

During this time he had gained a total of 40 stat points in intelligence, wisdom and Perseverance and gained a substantial amount of knowledge on the history of Versailles and the various races that lived in it.

It seemed like he had finished slightly ahead of the deadline Lexus had set him. Then again, Ferrex had finished in the first two weeks so Godou did not feel it was that great of an achievement.

Bored, Godou strode up to one of the other shelves and randomly picked another book and returned to his position to read.

It turned out to be an encyclopaedia of the various classes and roles of the people in churches. It provided basic information on paladins, who were basically warriors with minor healing abilities and priests who could heal, buff and debuff but generally were weak when it comes to dealing damage. Saints were one of the last class advancements for priest and usually held high positions in churches. Likewise Saint knights were one of the last class advancements for paladins.

Speaking of which, Ferrex also wanted to become a priest, was he aiming to become a saint in the future. Interested, Godou decided to ask him.

"Hey, Ferrex"

"Yeah"

"When you said that you wanted to be a priest are you also aiming to become a saint as well?"

Ferrex's face seemed to distort for a split second before he resumed his normal pokerface and gave his reply.

"I would like to repay the order of Freya for all they have done for me but I don't think I would be worthy of such a position after all I've done."

"Sorry for asking."

Godou seemed to have unintentionally hit Ferrex's sore point so he hurriedly tried to change the subject.

"That aside, what are these divine gem things? They keep popping up in this book but there's no explanation for them"

"Well strictly knowledge on divine gems is not something that many people outside religious orders know of. Divine gems are objects said to house the powers of the gods. As a result, all holy spells become strengthened in the presence of a divine gem. Most of the old churches would have a divine gem embedded in them to strengthen the power of the blessings the church can provide. However, similar effects can be obtained now with the increase masterpiece sculptures and buildings."

"If those gems are so powerful then how come they aren't carried and taken to be used against monster raids and large scale battles? I'm just assuming that there would be more public knowledge of them if they were."

"Well the thing is divine gems aren't exactly small and they can also be very unstable and can cause more harm than good in such a chaotic battlefield."

"Wow, I thought I had enough knowledge after reading all those books but there stills seems to be so much that I don't know as well."

"Well, the world is a vast place."

"Yeah"

That aside, who exactly are you Ferrex? And how do you know so much about divine gems if you're not part of the order of Freya? With great effort, Godou reigned in his curiosity and when back to reading. If Ferrex didn't want to tell him then he wouldn't pry any further…

The next day, Lexus came by carrying a pile of books to check on their progress.

"Ah good, looks like both of you finished the basic education right on time. Well, it was a given the Ferrex would finish since you've done part of it already before you began, but I was a bit afraid that Godou wouldn't finish in time."

So that was why Ferrex finished early. Speaking of which, Godou had not gained anymore points in wisdom or intelligence from reading books since he had received +20 fame and +100 mana message.

"Anyway, congratulations both of you and now it have to give you your reward."

Saying that, Lexus placed the pile of books on the table.

His growing interest ignited, Godou stared that the books wondering what would come next.

"These books each contain a different skill. They are presented to all the people who have completed the basic education. Be careful which one you choose because once you learn one of the skills, you will be unable to learn the others."

Godou looked at the titles of the books. They were old and barely legible. Unable to decide which book to pick, Godou randomly chose a book and opened it.

He caught a glimpse of the first page before the page of the books started to flip by themselves as at an alarming rate. The sounds of more pages flipping told Godou that the same thing was happening to Ferrex. As this was happening, a rapid series of images flashed in front of Godou's eyes until finally, the last page of the book turned over and –

Ding!

**-You have learnt Mana Weapon Creation**

**-Mana Weapon Creation – Beginner level 1**

**Visualise and create weapons out of pure mana. **

**Cost: 20 mana per second**

**Due to the completion of the Basic Education, the following information is available: **

**This is the basic form of high level elemental weapon magic originating from the recordings of ancient texts. The finer elements of this skill have been lost in time.**

**These weapons will drain mana out of you when they are active. Weapons will be destroyed if their mana supply disappears. The power of the weapon is dependent on its size and mana density.**

After reading the skill description, Godou closed the message window and looked at Lexus expectantly.

"Well, now that you've both got your new skill, it's time to begin the basic training. Follow me."

Saying that, Lexus left the room and started walking briskly down the stairs. Following him, Godou realised that they were now beneath the church. Strangely, during the three weeks he had spend in the church, Godou had never noticed the church having a basement.

Stopping in front of white door, Lexus turned around to speak to them.

"Okay, behind this door is where you will be conducting your basic training for the next few days."

"I thought the fastest time anybody's ever finished it was 4 weeks, how are we meant to finish it in a few days?"

Ferrex queried, appearing confused at Lexus' statement. Meanwhile, Godou looked at Lexus with an uneasily feeling developing in his chest. The way Lexus had said it, it was startling similar to the way–

"It's been a bit of a tough decision but the higher ups want to give you a mission right after Godou's initial city restriction is over so we're going to have to pull out all the stops. Be grateful, you two will be using a method of training that was only used to speed train new recruits in the last Kallamore–Haven War."

Having said that, Lexus opened the door and shoved both of them inside the room.

Ding!

**You are the first player to discover the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. **

**A mysterious training room that has not been used since the last Kallamore–Haven War. The trainees from this room were able to become stronger after a short period of time. However, many of them also suffered from increased stress and developed a phobia of machines. **

**+100 fame**

**Due to the completion of the Basic Education, the following information is available:**  
**The presence of a divine gem allows time flows more slowly in this room than compared to outside. People in this room will not feel hungry, sleepy nor will they be are able to collapse from fatigue or die.**

A frightening message popped up in front of Godou. Looking into the room, he saw a series of wood scarecrows aligned in rows. Attached to the scarecrows were ominous looking machines with thin metal arms. Hanging on the walls were wooden swords.

"Uhm what exactly do we do in the basic training? And what do those machines do?"

Godou cautiously raised the questions he had in his mind. His battle instincts, honed from real life combat, were telling him to run like the wind away from the church.

"The basic training just involves hitting these scarecrows for a period of time to improve your physical stats. Now as for the machines, Ferrex grab a sword and come over here!"

With the expression of a man facing his death sentence, Ferrex did as he was told and walked to Lexus who was now standing next to one of the scarecrows. Wordlessly, Lexus made Ferrex hold the sword with both hands and strapped him to the machine so that the metal arms were connected to Ferrex's.

"Now try hitting the scarecrow"

"What the hell, it's heavy"

HIT

"Yep that's the point of the machine. It increases the amount of force you have to use to move your arms to increase the effectiveness of the training. But that's not all it does. If you don't hit the scarecrow again within 5 seconds then a rebound spell on the scarecrow activates causing you to suffer the damage you did with you latest attack"

"Wait what? Gahhh"

"See I told you. now I think this answers your questions Godou so it's time to strap you to one of these as well."

Lexus's merciless words entered Godou's ears just as he was about to quietly exit the room. Then after a short scuffle between the level 2 classless player and unknown level NPC scouter(?), Godou also found himself hitting the scarecrow with all his might.

"By the way don't drop your sword. Even I don't know what will happen if you do. Well I'll come back in a few days"

"Wait, You devil!"

"Are you serious!?"

Leaving those words behind, Lexus made his way out of the room conveniently ignoring the screams of his trainees.

The Cavern Pass was a rugged tunnel like place close to the Senbain mountains. It was a place where very few people bothered to hunt. The monsters were a pain to kill due to their high defences and did not offer any valuable drops for the typical fighter.

There was however, one type of drop which was known to drop from almost every single monster in it.

Magical Reagents!

Of course this was useless to the non-magic classes and the magic classes with combat abilities were too squishy to fight the mobs, even in a party.

However, it was for that ever reason that Satoshi now stood before the pass entrance.

"After hearing all there's no way I can resist the temptation of conquering this place."

Fighting in a party was fine an all but after fighting too long in one you tend to be too dependent on other people.

People say that they like to play melee classes because they like to go toe to toe with their opponents. But in reality, all they can do in a party is soak up hits like idiots and rely on their equipment to save them instead of their actual skills.

Likewise, mages and support classes are said to be useless without tanks to act as meat shields. Capable of dealing large amounts of damage in exchange for lower survivability, they are the squishies, crucial for fast hunting.

The balance between the two creates an efficient party.

However, if the hunting was going on too easily, where was the fun in that? Without any real sense of danger, the whole trip just becomes another grinding session. Spicing things up by doing it yourself was overall safer and more efficient than going with others. The thrill of accomplishment present when you successfully solo a dungeon full of dangerous mobs with the mage or even a healer class was something only experienced by the few people willing to immerse themselves into danger and rely on their wits and instincts to survive.

All in all, Satoshi concluded, hunting in parties made things too easy and if you hunt in a party for too long then you become weak. The opportunistic wolves hunt in packs while the solitary bear hunts alone…

Though, truth to be told, Satoshi was not in a very good mood currently and brooding about class dynamics had brought up unpleasant memories of dying in a dungeon he could have soloed because some idiot party member had somehow attracted the agro of every mob in the dungeon.

Plus, it seems some troublesome interlopers have arrived. Glancing behind him, Satoshi evaluated the party that had just arrived behind him.

It seemed to be comprised of 4 physical-type damagers (3 of them being of the meat shield variety the other one seemed to a fragile speedster) and 2 magic type squishies who were both female (1 of them most likely a priest). In terms of levels they all seemed to be in the 120s.

"Hi are you challenging this dungeon as well? Are you by yourself?" Their leader(?) asked Satoshi.

"Yes. Are you?" Ordinarily this would be a passible party …

"Yup we've heard rumours about this place and have decided to challenge it for ourselves! So how about it want to join us?" Their spokesperson puffed out his chest proudly.

**You have received a party invitation**

But already, Satoshi could see the sad fate of the party so he decided to give them some words of wisdom.

"No thanks, oh and some words of advice… you're all too weak, go home."

**You have declined the party invitation**

"You…" One of the other meat shields started towards Satoshi angrily. But their leader stopped him.

"Wait, I'm sure he has his reasons saying that. You've probably experienced hell yourself in there haven't you?"

"No this is my first time coming here" Predicting where the conversation was going to go, Satoshi unconsciously began to formulate a report.

Aim: To assess the abilities of the mobs in Cavern Pass and investigate the effects different types of attacks will have on them.

"Really? Then why did you say we were weak? No offense, but you don't seem that high level either. I can't see any weapons on you either. What's your class?"

"I'm a level 121 alchemist"

Secondary Aim: To investigate how long a typical party will hold out for against these types of mobs.

"What?! Why where you were you acting so tough for then?" The party was now staring at him in disbelief. "Come on, don't be like that, we still have room for a few more people"

**You have received a party request**

"Fine" Satoshi signed, the persistent ones were the most troublesome.

Especially if acting like an asshole didn't scare them away. This could mean one of two things. The group was trying to PK him and take his stuff which was unlikely now they knew he was an alchemist or that prickling their sense of pride has earned him a free seat to observe how the mobs fight.

**You have joined the party**

Hypothesis: Mobs will possess extremely high physical damage resistance, high offense abilities but low mobility. Once a mob has selected a target, it will be extremely hard for it for other people to agro it.

"Okay, I'm glad we could come to an agreement" The leader said.

"Oh you can just stand at the back of the party and watch exactly how weak we really are." The meat-shield-that-tried-to-approach-him-before spoke up as the party started to move into the dungeon. "I may accidentally let one the monsters slip in your direction because of how weak I am."

"… I would advised you not to do that…" Satoshi replied coolly, deciding to maintain his façade, electricity seeming to spark in the space between the two of them, "I won't save you even if you were about to die."

Secondary hypothesis: The group will last approximately 2 hours before being slaughtered.

Method: Still improvising.

Experiment start!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

6 days later… (In-game)

Godou followed Ferrex into the training hall. Inside were rows upon rows of scarecrows.

He shuddered as he remembered the aching of his arms and shoulders as a result of hitting scarecrows non-stop for the equivalent of 3 weeks inside a similar room under the church.

Having to stand during that time period hadn't made his legs feel any better either. Although he had now completely recovered his health and stamina, Godou felt that the memories of the training would haunt him for a while yet.

It seemed that the scarecrows they were hitting were connected to the magic research side of the church and that by hitting the scarecrows they had been generating power for the church. The barbaric training that Godou and Ferrex had gone through also turned out to be a test run for a new training regime for Kallamore's soldiers.

I get that Kallamore is supposed to be a dangerous place because of all the constant monster attacks but, seriously, was this something that a church should be doing?

Heck, even that rebound spell turned out to be an application of dark magic. Dark magic! Being used in a secret room underneath a holy church!

There were so many illogical things Godou wanted to complain to about.

Conversely, that test run had been deemed a failure for being too extreme.

After 5 minutes of hitting the scarecrow Godou had felt bored…

After 10 minutes he had faltered in one of his strikes and was awarded with a sudden jolt of pain for it…

Godou was also unable to log out. A message appeared whenever he tried saying:

**You cannot log out until you have cleared the Basic Training.**

By the end of the first hour, fatigue and mental exhaustion had started to catch up on him due to his lack of exercise in the first 3 weeks and he ended up receiving more damage from the scarecrow's rebound spell…

However, this did not prevent him from being able to hit the scarecrow. For some reason, most likely because of the divine gem in the room, he able to continue to move after his stamina had hit its limit and his health also had sudden large bursts of increased regeneration whenever he was close to death.

**Strength has increased by 1 point**

**Stamina has increased by 1 point**

After more few agonisingly long hours, various messages started appearing in front of him, making it slightly easier for him to endure…

But by the end of 10 hours of non-stop "training", Godou had come to hate the scarecrow standing in front of him…

After 72 hours, he couldn't remember anything…

When he came to, Godou found himself lying on one of the beds in the infirmary. Ferrex had been lying on another bed nearby, conscious, but seemingly unable to muster the motivation to move.

Lexus had come in by that point to tell them that they their training with the church was complete. Apparently, both Godou and Ferrex and collapsed the moment they had been released from the underground room.

Lexus had also given them a piece of paper, saying:

"To go to the local training hall and show this to the instructor there to retrieve your reward for passing the basic training. You're free to do as you like for the next few days but I want to talk to you to about something when you're both able to leave the town."

Afterwards, Godou had logged off for a while, desperate to escape virtual reality by entering the real world.

Logging back on, Godou had found Ferrex loitering around the church and had invited to accompany him around the town.

"Do you know where the Training Hall is?"

Since he was at loss at what to do first, Godou decided to follow Lexus's instructions first.

"I think so. Do you want me to show you around town as well? I heard that you didn't have time to explore the city before being trained by the church."

"Sure"

Nodding, Ferrex then offered his own proposal to which Godou immediately agreed to. After all, he had been taught to accept the goodwill of others.

Thus after a brief tour of the small city/large town, Godou found himself in his current situation.

After noticing them standing idly next to the entrance, a burly man came up shouting:

"If you're not here to hit the scarecrows then leave! I won't accept any lollygagging in my hall– Oh wait, from the looks of things you two have already finished the basic training."

"Yeah the church of Freya trained us. They told us to come here to collect our reward."

Wincing slightly at the loudness of the instructor(?)'s voice, Godou retrieved the note he had gotten from Lexus and handed it over to the instructor.

"Okay, wait here"

After briefly glancing at the note, the instructor disappeared into a back room but came back shortly, carrying what looked like two long swords. He handed them a sword each and congratulated them, noticeably more friendly than when he first spoke to them.

After thanking him, the duo exited the training hall.

Dismissing the uneasily feeling he was getting from holding an actual weapon in a town full of people, Godou equipped his new sword.

Then curious of the bonuses it gave him Godou opened his stats window which read:

** Character Name:****Godou**

**Alignment:****None**

**Level:****2**

**Class:****Classless**

**Title:****None**

**Fame:****142**

**Health:****957**

**Mana:****232**

**Strength:****50+10**

**Agility:****50**

**Wisdom:****50**

**Intellect:****50**

**Leadership:****5**

**Luck:****34**

**Stamina:****50**

**Perserverance:****104**

**Sustenance:****96**

**Fighting Spirit:****39**

**Attack:****11**

**Defence****0**

**Magical Resistance:****Dark Magic****3%**

Compared to before he underwent the all the training the church had given him, Godou found that his stats were considerably higher.

Conversely, Godou seemed to have unlocked some completely new stats at some point in time.

**-Perseverance**  
**Reduces the physical damage enemies can inflict on you and increases your total health by a small amount. Stat increases automatically when you take damage from melee attacks. You can distribute level up bonuses to this stat.**

**-Sustenance**  
**You are likely to use less stamina in action. You are prohibited from distributing stat level up points to this stat.**

**-Fighting Spirit**  
**You can call on superhuman strength temporally, or bring weaker monsters to their knees with the force from your eyes along. You are prohibited from distributing level up bonus points to this stat and it rises spontaneously depending on the avatar's actions, especially if you fight monsters for a long time or often confront monsters stronger than your current level.**

Then again, I also had a memory blackout because of the basic training so I might have gotten them then.

Brushing aside the unpleasant memories that were resurfacing in his mind, Godou posed the question:

"So now that we've gotten our reward, what do we do now?"

"You've got a point there, there's really nothing to do since you can't go outside yet."

"What would you normally do then?"

"I would probably go back to the church and stare at the clouds or something… Ah I got it! Why don't we go to a pub then, know any places?"

"Speaking of which, I haven't seen Mark in a while either. Yeah, I know a place. In fact the owner of it is the one who recommended me to Lexus."

"Okay, lead the way then."

Having decided that, Godou wandered about the town, with Ferrex following, trying to track down his first spawn point.

At last he found it and looking around, Godou also spotted a large sign reading [Mark's Pub]

"OH if it isn't Godou. I haven't seen you in a while!"

Upon entering the pub, Godou was treated to a large shout from Mark.

"It's nice to see you too Mark."

"Hehehe it seems you've gotten stronger. Lexus must be doing his job and toughening you up. So has he begged you to become a paladin yet?"

"No, I'm not an official trainee of the yet."

"Well I guess he can't give out any offers before you join the order. So who's your friend? Come to think of it you look familiar."

While saying that, Mark passed them free drinks.

"I am Ferrex Dakef. "

"Ah I remember now, you were that kid from 8 years ago during that battle between the orders of Freya and Beezelb–"

"After that Freya took me in and I've been with them ever since."

"Hmm I was wondering what happened to you. And from the looks of it you're not an official member of the church yet either. What is Lexus thinking? If it were me I would've immediately tried to reel you two in."

"Speaking of which, Lexus seems to be quite a complex person. He seemed so hard working of the surface but I never expected him to have such an extreme side to him"

"Yeah, I've been living with the church for years but I never knew he would have something like that underground room prepared."

"Oh so you guys are the reason why Lexus made that strange request. I was wondering why he wanted me to configure a spell timing system and metals arms on scarecrows."

"So you're the culprit behind those devilish contraptions!"

"Hehehe it's been awhile since I've been able tinker around with my blacksmithing skills"

"Wait, I thought you said you where an adventurer before you were a pub keeper."

"There's nothing wrong with being an adventuring blacksmith. Though after being injured during– …8 years ago, I haven't been able to move around as much as I'd want to."

Ferrex made an astonished exclamation while Godou, who had come to accept the eccentricity of the barman, frowned at the inconsistencies he found in Mark's statement.

"If you were a blacksmith, then why didn't you open up a blacksmithing shop instead of a pub?"

"That's too mainstream! Besides there's also the fact that weapon and armour making is a competitive area. After my injury it takes me too long to make things so I decided to give up on it. I tried moving to pubs but it turned out to be even more competitive than blacksmithing! Gaah why am I cursed to make such decisions!"

Deciding to ignore Mark's outburst, Godou steered the conversation to more trivial topics, starting to feel dizzy. Eventually, the regulars in the pub recognised him as the lucky newbie and dragged him off into another gambling marathon which lasted hours.

Part 2  
(The next day)

Godou made his way to the church to find Lexus and Ferrex waiting for him.

Damn that idiot Doni.

He hadn't paid attention to it before but the drink Mark had given him contained alcohol. Puzzled at why the age censorship filter didn't block the taste of alcohol, Godou had checked his censorship settings and found that the alcohol restrictions were permanently set to match Italy's, that is 15 years and over.

That explained why Godou had been feeling lightheaded at the pub. Although Godou's physical body had a strong resistance against alcohol, his viritual body seemed to be a different matter.

When he reached them, Lexus started speaking.

"Okay, the thing is there's a minor mission that this church just received. However, were a bit shorthanded on staff so none of our stationed paladins and priests can be mobilised without Tellap town weakening considerably. "

Godou nodded. During the time he had spent in the church, he had noticed that he kept running across the same people. He had wondered that there were some other people too important for an unofficial trainee like him to meet but that didn't seem to be the case.

"As a result of all that you too are the only people we can entrust this task to. However, before I can give it to you, you two will have to pass another minor task, otherwise our official trainees are going to complain that we're being biased–"

"Hang on! You're not going to make us do something outrageous like the scarecrows again are you?"

Ferrex asked the cautionary question that Godou had also been pondering on.

"No, this time we'll be doing things normally. The order of Freya has recently had many complaints about how the wolves around Northern Tellap are becoming nuisance. One particularly large pack has been causing trouble. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to annihilate this pack and bring back their pelts as proof."

Ding!

**The initial test**

**Before Lexus can entrust to you the mission, he needs to have evidence that you are worthy of being able to carry out the task. Therefore, you are required to annihilate the wolf pack causing trouble in the northern section of the woods around Tellap. **

**Difficulty: E**

**Restrictions:**  
**Unofficial trainee of the Order of Freya**  
**Completed the basic training**  
**Completed the basic education**  
**Close relationship with Lexus**

**Rewards:**  
**Recognition from the members of the church of Freya stationed in Tellap Town**  
**+20 fame**  
**+10 honour points**  
**+10 contribution points to the Order of Freya **

**Penalties:**  
**Failure results in a loss of respect within the church**  
**Quest fails if all party members are killed**

"Okay"

"I accept"

**You have accepted the quest**

"Before you start, I suggest you get some practice on the weaker monsters around the town. Now, I wish I could also give a class as well but I'm not allowed to do this unless you are officially part of the church."

After saying that, Lexus pointed them to the direction where the wolf pack was last seen. Godou and Ferrex made a party and headed off in that direction.

(Later at the training field...)

Godou looked around the field. It seemed to be populated by rabbits with the occasional fox here and there. He noticed that the town walls around this area also seemed abnormally high compared to the other sections.

"Why are there walls on this side of the town so much higher than the others?"

"To keep the rabbits out… well actually I think the walls were being modified to be like that during the last Kallamore-Haven war but the war ended before more than this side was built and people lost interest in it after that."

Ferrex answered Godou's question in a half-joking manner before saying.

"Speaking of which there's a lot of rabbits around here. Since it's your first time fighting monsters why don't we start with them? Plus, I haven't fought anything since the church took me in so I'm a bit rusty as well."

Godou looked at a rabbit that had hopped just 5 metres in front of him. From what he could recall, rabbits were passive mobs that only attacked players in self-defence. Staring at it, Godou felt guilty at the thought of attacking such a small animal. After all, he had considered himself to be a pacifist, who much like the rabbit, only fought seriously when he had reasons to do so.

These rabbits probably just want to live a peaceful life frolicking in fields and eating grass or something but end up having that lifestyle ruined when some newbie player who starts hunting them. Then again, this is just a game so I'm probably thinking too deeply into it.

Suppressing his guilty thoughts, Godou approached the rabbit and crouched in front of hit. He drew his sword, raising it to strike the rabbit. The said rabbit turned its head to look at him, its large brown eyes looking at him innocently in his shadow.

Damn it! Don't look at me like that.

Godou hesitated, his resolve wavering, and then swung the sword down at the rabbit.

Now, aside from the few times that Godou had used actively the Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi as a sword (which was rather rare since he was keen on sticking to weapon regulations), Godou had no real experience in handling bladed weapons in reality and the only other time he had used a sword was during the basic training.

As such, Godou's sword strike was not the sharp fast strike of trained swordmasters such as his knights Erica and Liliana, but rather, the sloppy unmotivated hit of an amateur. However, it was an attack that had been forcefully drilled into him through relentless hours spent hitting scarecrows.

Thus, Godou had not been expecting it when the rabbit nimbly dodged the sword and sent a vicious kick at his face.

Reflexively, Godou managed to avoid the kick by falling backwards. However, in doing so, he had lost his grip on his sword and fell flat on his back. Capitalising on this moment of weakness, the rabbit landed on him and started jumping on him.

**You have lost 14 HP**

**You have lost 12 HP**

**You have lost 17 HP**

Don't get cocky you damn rabbit!

Godou batted the rabbit while it was in mid-air, knocking it a few metres away due to his abnormal strength stat.

Panting, Godou rolled over and quickly got to his feet, tensing for the attack he knew the rabbit would make. In doing so he realised the mistake he had made. When he had knocked the rabbit away, it had flown and crashed into another rabbit.

As a result, instead of the attack from a single rabbit, Godou now had to face the combined assault of two rabbits leaping up at him. Barehanded.

Thinking quickly, Godou grabbed the ears of the first rabbit and used it like a baseball bat (well, more like a cricket bat) to knock away the second rabbit while they were both still in mid-air.

The shock of being used in such a manner seemed to have been too much for the first rabbit because it promptly died, dissolving into grey flame and leaving a few coins behind.

Now, the second rabbit should be… oh no…

Looking over to where the he had sent the second rabbit, Godou saw that it had also somehow fallen on top of two other rabbit causing all of them to rush at him as well.

"Hey, a little help here would be appreciated!"

Godou called out to Ferrex who had been cracking up on the ground at Godou's war against rabbits.

"Hahaha… sorry, that was just the most entertaining hunting method I've seen so far. I don't know if I should consider you lucky or unlucky now."

Apologising, Ferrex also drew his sword and blocked off two of the rabbits heading towards Godou.

The other rabbit charged through unhindered. Godou readied himself, holding up his sword, which he had just retrieved, like a baseball bat. He watched the rabbit's movement carefully, his concentration heightening to abnormal levels.

Compared to the balls thrown by the national pitchers Godou had faced when he still played baseball, the rabbit seemed incomparably slow. Thus, Godou was able to accurately able to time and right moment to strike and tragically separate the rabbits head from the rest of its body.

Afterwards, both parts of the rabbit dissolved into grey flame.

That seemed too easy.

Compared life and death battles involving high speed arrows, swords, claws and even laser beams, the rabbits seemed extremely weak.

Reflecting back Godou found it a pleasant change, being able to fight opponents weaker than himself.

Then Ferrex came back, having dealt with the other two rabbits, asking:

"Well I think it's safe to move on to foxes now. How are you going in terms of health?"

"I have about 95% left"

"Well, I better heal you up anyway. Healing Hand!"

A light shone from Ferrex's left hand and hit Godou. Instantly, Godou felt the minor pain from his injuries subside.

"How are you able to cast spells? I thought you needed at have a staff."

"Oh that's because this ring I'm wearing does the same function as a staff. Also, a staff is just a weapon that amplifies magic not having a staff doesn't mean you can't use magic. The spells you cast would just be a lot weaker."

Ferrex showed Godou a black ring on his left hand. Although it looked plain, it undoubtedly was a rare item.

"Come to think of it, I don't know your class and level either"

"I'm level... 102… I am a Sa– I'm a priest. "

"Wow your level's so much higher than mine."

There was a slight hesitation in Ferrex's response but Godou decided to let it go.

"Please keep in mind that my job is not primarily to kill any monsters apart from undead. And also I most of my training before I met you was not based on increasing my physical stats. Anyway enough about me, I noticed you didn't use any skills in that fight earlier. Shouldn't you have learnt a skill from that book Lexus showed you? Or was it a non-combat skill?"

"I completely forgot about that. I've never used it before so I don't know what it does. How do I use it do I just call out the name?"

"Yeah, most people do that but what really actives the skill is your thoughts."

"Thoughts?"

"I mean, considering the fact that there are some people out there who can't speak for whatever reason, there has to be another method of activating the skill. It's a different matter with spells though, you have to say the whole incantation as well as the spell name unless you've reached a certain level of proficiency with the spell."

Ferrex's explanation was unusually long winded this time.

"Okay let me try. Mana Weapon Creation! Damn a bit wordy"

Nothing happened. Godou felt disappointed. Wait, this is a skill that lets me make weapons the how does the game know what weapon to make. Do I have to visualise the weapon first?

Looking the sword in his hand, Godou tried his best to memorise what he could of it and tried the activating the skill.

"Mana Weapon Creation"

BUZZ

A ball of light flashed in Godou's other hand and took the shape of the sword he was imagining.

**Mana Weapon has been successfully created**

Although parts of the mana sword appeared indistinct, Godou was glad that it hadn't turned out as something unrecognisable. The mana sword glowed and gave off a humming sound.

Godou stared at it mesmerised and then stopped the skill as he realised how quickly it was depleting his mana.

"That's a pretty draining skill. I guess I'll have to test how strong the weapons I can make are first though. Speaking of which, you also learn a skill from Lexus. What was your skill?"

"Mine's a non-combat skill called Mana Structure Comprehension. It gives me a chance to copy spells that I have been hit with myself. Thanks to that I was learn the blasted Rebound spell from the scarecrows."

Godou considered testing out the skill on another rabbit but decided against it. Testing new skills against vastly weaker opponents was not something that could be considered training. It would be best if he followed Ferrex's suggestion and moved on to a fox or a wolf now.

Ferrex had sat down by now and was mediating to regain his lost mana. Seeing this, Godou decided to do the same thing.

When they had completely recovered, the duo wordlessly stood up and looked for a fox.

Upon finding one, Ferrex requested:

"Let me play around with this one first, I want to try something."

Godou glanced at Ferrex questioningly. A priest should be a class primarily based on supporting their team through healing and buffing. Whether in reality or games the basic team formation was to have the support in the back and have the fighters protecting them.

Except, it seemed as if Ferrex had no intention of staying behind Godou. Was he just confident because of his high level or was it something else?

Ferrex charged at the fox intimidating it. It tensed about to leap at him.

"Slow!"

A bolt of light flew from Ferrex's left hand and struck the fox as it leapt at him. The speed of the fox's leap slowed down to about 30% of its original speed by the curse.

Sidestepping the fox that had now been reduced to a turtle, Ferrex called out:

"Divine power that leads us to triumph, Blessing!"

Another bolt of light flew at hit the fox. This time it was a blessing that increased the fox's strength and agility for a short period of time.

The fox leapt at Ferrex again, faster than previously but still slower than its original speed.

"Divine radiance that grants protection, Barrier!"

The fox crashed into a solid wall of light. It quickly recovered and leapt at Ferrex again.

This time Ferrex did not defend in time and got bitten by the fox. Godou stepped forward about to help him until…

"Vengeful spirits that vow for revenge, Rebound!"

Godou realised what Ferrex was doing. Godou was not the only one who had new skills they wanted to test. Ferrex must have learnt quite a few new spells from reading all those books in the church.

After Ferrex had tested out a series of other different spells, he healed the fox saying:

"Ok that's my bit done do you want me to leave it like that?"

He was referring to the fox which was still under the effects of the slowing curse.

"No, could you dispel your curse? Actually could you buff the fox as well?"

Godou had been observing the movements of the fox during the fight. Now that he had seen its attack pattern Godou was confident that he would be able to take it on. If he were a certain distance from the fox then it would leap at him. If he attacked it in a certain manner then it would perform a certain action. All this became obvious thanks the slowing curse.

"Okay, your call. Dispel! Divine power that leads us to triumph, Blessing!"

The fox charged at Ferrex, enraged at being toyed around with so much. Godou quickly intercepted it with a tackle from the side as it leapt in the air.

Recovering at about the same time as the fox, Godou rolled to his feet and slashed at it, forcing it to leap backwards.

"Mana weap– "

The fox attacked him again before he could activate his skill. Using all his strength, he dived to the side, the fox's fangs barely grazing his side. A savage grin unconsciously split across Godou's face.

Landing uncomfortably on the ground, he quickly scrambled to his feet and bashed the fox away with his sword as it tried to leap at him again.

"Mana weapon Creat– "

Once again it interrupted him before he could finish. Calling out the skill name wasn't the difficult part of executing the skill. It was the matter simultaneously yelling out the name and focusing to visualise the sword which prevented Godou from using the skill.

Feeling frustrated Godou stopped trying to say the full name of the skill and yelled out the first thing related to the skill that came to mind.

Trace On!...

Create!"

BUZZ

It worked! Feeling exhilarated about finally being able to use the skill, Godou sidestepped the fox as it charged at him again and swung the mana sword at it.

SHATTER

The mana sword cut the fox slightly before shattering into pieces. Godou stared at it dumbfounded for the briefest fraction of a second before the pieces violently exploded.

**You lost 245 Health**

**Mana Weapon Creation Level Up!**  
**- Size of weapons created has increased**  
**- Durability of weapons created has increased**

The fox died from the explosion whilst Godou had been knocked off his feet.

Contrary to expectation, this explosion was completely silent.

"That's an interesting skill you learnt. Seems a bit risky though. Healing Hand!"

"I was not expecting it to explode like that"

Staying on the ground, Godou started to mediate to regain his used up mana. He wondered how he was supposed to use a skill like that. No, it might be better to think about how someone else would use it. Although he did not intend to copy others, Godou felt that he could at least get some inspiration by think about it.

Savatore Doni would probably do something ridiculous like… no let's not think about that idiot.

Liliana might use the skill to make an infinite source of arrows or something similar. Exploding arrows would definitely be dangerous… However, Godou did not know anything about archery...

Erica would… hmm that could work.

Checking that his mana was completely full, Godou got to his feet and started looking for another fox.

"I think I've figured out a way to use it"

"Really? This should be interesting."

After spotting one, Godou walked up to it and stopped about 20m away from it. Closing his eyes, Godou looked back in his memories trying to visualise the weapon which Erica had sometimes used.

"Create!"

BUZZ

He looked at the weapon in his hands. A 2 metre long spear with about 1 quarter of its length making up the thin spearhead. Perfect!

It was a weapon designed to break to after being thrown to hinder the enemy. In other words, Godou had just recreated a javelin once used by the Roman military, a pilum.

Holding it up, Godou took a step forward and threw it at the fox with all the force he could muster.

It flew quickly through the air and impaled the startled fox. It exploded shortly after. The fox having survived the attack, snarled and charged at Godou.

"Wow you took out 92% of the fox's health with that"

Ferrex used his powers as a priest to report the extent of the damage on the fox before killing it with his sword.

During this time Godou had only activated the skill for about 7 seconds. As such he still had about one third of his mana remaining.

"How much stronger are wolves?"

"About the same as the buffed fox. I think you should level up a bit before we face them."

Not feeling patient enough to wait for his mana to regenerate, Godou looked around more foxes to kill. Ferrex gave him some support from behind mostly staying at the back this time since Godou was the one who needed to level up quickly.

Whenever he had enough mana Godou made mana javelins and threw them. He also started to experiment with the other weapons he could create.

During this process he got up to level 10 and had distributed all the level up stat bonuses equally between Strength, Agility, Wisdom and Intelligence. He had received the following message.

**You have learn Throwing Weapon Mastery Beginner 1**

**Throwing Weapon Mastery Beginner 1**  
**+ 15% damage of thrown projectiles**  
**+ 10% speed of thrown projectiles**

Part 3  
Afterwards, they went back to town somehow managed to persuade a hunter to track down the wolf pack for them.

After approximately 20 minutes of searching for clues in the mountain forest, they found a small cave. At that point the hunter said:

"All the foot prints led into that cave so I'm willing to bet that it's the wolf den. If it is, then it seems to be a rather large pack, about 40 wolves in there. Well, I'm not too keen to stick around here since there might be wolves patrolling around so I'm going back. Happy hunting."

And headed back to town, leaving Godou and Ferrex by themselves.

"That Lexus, his making us do something outrageous again. When he said a wolf pack I thought it'd only be 13 or 14 of them"

Ferrex placed his complaint. Godou was about to agree with him when he heard a sound behind them. Startled they turned around.

They had encountered a pair of wolves.

There was a moment of silence as the two sides looked at each other. Godou noted that these wolves seemed a lot larger and more threatening than the foxes he fought before.

Then, simultaneously, the wolves leapt at them.

While dodging the jaws of the wolf he was facing and casually placing the slowing curse on it, Ferrex made the remark.

"So we're up against about 40 of these.

"How bout we spilt it so that we both take on 20 each? Create!"

Godou made his reply as he dropped to one knee and created a mana spear, placing it so that the butt of the spear was supported in the ground and the tip was directed at the wolf.

Unable to change its direction, the wolf ran straight into the spearhead. The spear broke and promptly exploded, blasting the wolf away. It came to a stop with a sickening crunch as it smashed into a tree.

"That hardly seems fair since I'm a healer and the only useable offense skill I have is the rebound spell."

Godou, who had been expecting the explosion to happen, had braced his lower body so he had not been too badly affected by it. The wolf got to its feet, dazed and badly injured, but still capable of fighting. It raised its head, about to howl and call for help.

"You're physical capabilities are pretty much the same as mine! Wait do you have other offensive skills?"

Seeing its intentions, Godou quickly drew his sword and threw it at the wolf. It flew at the wolf's throat point first and skewered it to the tree before it could make a sound.

"I blame that on Lexus and yeah but certain restrictions must be met before I can use them"

The wolf whimpered and then died. Godou turned to see Ferrex about to deal the finishing blow to the wolf he was facing.

"Oh I hate troublesome abilities like that. Is there any chance of satisfying these conditions?"

It seemed that after being slowed to a snail's pace by Ferrex's curse, the other wolf had had absolutely no chance of winning.

"Nope. It doesn't seem like we can collapse the cave on them either. Maybe we can block off the entrance so they only come at us one at a time."

As Ferrex appeared perfectly capable of soloing the wolf himself, Godou went to retrieve his sword.

"I don't think that would work. Those wolves would hear us moving the blockade in place. Besides they'd probably come through some other side entrance we don't know about and attack us from there as well."

"Your ability to adapt to change is truly frightening. A few hours ago you were playing around with foxes and rabbits, now you're ready to take on a wolf pack."

"Please don't say it as if I'm some sort of monster."

Feeling disgruntled at that statement for some reason, then Godou said:

"It looks like we can only do a frontal charge. Conserve your mana and only use it for healing. We'll just have to improvise something.

"But that's practically suicide! Wait, no it isn't. With our perseverance we will surely be fine! No matter what fighting 40 wolves cannot be worse than hitting a scarecrow every few seconds for 3 weeks straight!"

Having decided that, Godou and Ferrex healed up and cautiously entered the wolf den. Luckily, all the remaining wolves in the den were sleeping when they had entered. As a result, they were able to reduce the number of wolves by 8 before the rest of them woke up.

After that the duo underwent a desperate battle in which they were forced to face 33 wolves in an enclosed space.

3 hours later they appeared before Lexus with their clothes ripped to rags and swords covered in notches to notify him that they had completed the quest.

**Quest Complete!**  
**Having successfully purged a nuisance wolf pack, the church now acknowledges you.**

**+20 fame**  
**+10 honour points**  
**+10 contribution points to the Order of Freya**

"Now that you have proven yourself, I can now safely tell you your real mission. A church in the nearby town of Naidiriv is low on members and needs more people to defend the village. We have answered their calls by sending a few of our other members ahead of you but we have no had contact with them for weeks. We need you guys to go and join the defence force there as mercenaries. So do you accept?"

**Reinforcements**  
**The church of Freya has received a call for help from Naidiriv. Other members have been dispatched ahead of you but contact with them has been lost for about 4 weeks. You are to act as reinforcements in that town and if possible find out what happened to the missing members.**

**Difficulty: C**

**Restrictions:**  
**Acknowledged by the Order of Freya**

**Rewards**  
**+500 Contribution points to the Order of Freya**  
**+100 Fame**

**Penalties: **  
**Will result in a loss of familiarity with the Order of Freya if the quest fails.**

""I accept""

**You have accepted the quest**

**Your party has accepted the quest**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

"By the way you two look terrible."

"Wolves…"

"That wolf pack seemed more like a wolf army…"

After chuckling at Godou and Ferrex's responses, Lexus then got back down to business, giving them more instructions.

"Come to the armoury and we'll give you some defensive gear and also pay Mark a visit and get him to fix your swords, he might not seem like it be he was once a famous blacksmith you know. Hmmm, it's also starting to get pretty late. You need to depart by tomorrow so get some rest as well. "

Then as they turned to leave he called out.

"Ah wait, I have to give you this as well."

They turned around. Lexus was rummaging through a box that Godou hadn't noticed before. From the box he pulled out 4 flasks filled with strangely coloured liquid. 2 of them were red while the other 2 were a bluish-purple colour. Godou recognised them as health and mana potions.

"And also…"

After giving one of each potion to each of them, he pulled out 2 golden pendants out of his pocket and handed them to the duo saying:

"These pendants will show that you have been recognised by the church of Freya. They will at least get you some sort of privileges if you go to another branch. Do not lose them."

Godou stared at the pendant, noticing that it had been shaped into the symbol of the church of Freya. Thanking Lexus, he placed it around his neck.

Next to him, Ferrex did the same thing, the Freya pendant jangling noisily as it clashed with his other golden pendant.

"Okay that's all. Now, go to the armoury."

Following orders, the two made their way to the armoury to get better defensive gear. Ferrex had only ended up taking an outfit identical to his original one saying:

"I am a priest, I shouldn't wear such cumbersome protection."

Likewise, Godou had refused to take a full set of armour since he made his movements too slow and clumsy. In the end, all he took was a leather bracers and leather boots.

Both of them were forced to take a white hooded cloak which somewhat resembled a coat with them which they equipped right away.

Afterwards, they wandered around until they reached Mark's Pub which was bustling with customers. It seemed that the pub remained noisy regardless of whether or not it was day or night. Godou was starting to feel sorry for the residents of nearby houses.

Upon entering the pub, Mark greeted them with a hearty yell saying:

"Well would look at that! You guys sure look the part now! What can I do you?"

"Lexus told us to get you to repair our swords"

Saying that Godou unsheathed the iron sword he wore hung at his side. Upon seeing the dents and scratches on it, Mark exclaimed:

"This is a hard iron sword from the basic training isn't it? I thought these were supposed to be durable, just what the hell did you do to it. That looks like you've been bashing with a rock or something."

"Well, the mission we were given was harder than we thought…"

"Humph, your sword doesn't look in any better condition either, give it here I have them both fixed up by morning. Hehehehe I look forward to charging Lexus on the repair costs… This would make up for my lack of sales in the pub…"

Pretending not to hear the last part of Mark's scheme, Godou bid them both good night and logged out.

It was morning by the time Godou logged back in. He made his way to the entrance of the Mark's pub to find Ferrex waiting for him with both of their swords. After greeting each other, Ferrex returned Godou's sword and the duo made their way out of the town to begin their journey.

Looking back, Godou was starting to feel regret about how he had lost self-control and not only destroyed a wolf pack but also rampaged around the training field as well. Although he knew that the mobs were only bits of data in Virtual Reality, the AI they processed made them seem so life like.

In fact the only way he could tell whether or not someone was a player or an NPC was the fact that NPC's had a past history in this world. Ferrex, Lexus and Mark all had their different personalities and experiences just like people in reality. Was it really right to consider them as expendable pieces of data?

"Skill Window"

Trying to distract himself from these thoughts, Godou opened a window to view a list of his currently learnt skills.

**Cooking Mastery Beginner 1 (17%)**  
**Identification Beginner 1 (0%)**  
**Handicraft Beginner 1 (2%)**  
**Mana Weapon Creation Beginner 2 (61%)**  
**Sword Mastery Beginner 3 (93%) **  
**Throwing Weapon Mastery Beginner 2 (23%)**

He hadn't remembered when he had picked up the identification skill but he assumed that he had learnt sometime during the basic education. Likewise he didn't remember where he obtained the Sword Mastery skill either. Must have been during the basic training. Vaguely, he remembered getting the cooking and handicraft skill from helping out with the church during his first 3 weeks.

After exiting the town, they followed a path which headed towards and through the Senbain Mountains. It was a wide dirt path which Ferrex had explained to be a popular trading route.

Trees grew wildly along the sides of the path, surrounding it with a mountain forest. The air tasted colder and fresher to Godou than it ever had in town. Occasionally, he spotted a fox leaping through between the trees.

On the morning of the 2nd day of travelling Godou, noticing something strange, asked the question.

"Hey, how close are we to Naidiriv?"

"We should be able to see it by noon and we'll reach it by nightfall."

"Then I'm assuming that this smoke isn't coming from the village right?"

Godou pointed to the rising trail of grey smoke he had spotted. It seemed as if it was coming from a large fire.

"That's strange I'm pretty sure that there aren't any other settlements around here apart from Tellap and that's in the opposite direction."

"Should we go and investigate?"

"Hmmm… I think we should, but we'll keep our distance and see if we can spot them from up there, I have a bad feeling about this."

Ferrex voiced his unease whilst pointing to a distant ledge further up the mountain path, directly above the source of the smoke.

The duo travelled silently after that brief exchange. When they got to the ledge they cautiously went and peered over it.

Godou could see numerous figures running around a camp below. A large camp fire had been set up in the middle of it. Surrounding the camp fire were a few crude wood shelters. The disturbing thing was none of the figures looked human.

"This is…"

"Kobolds. Those are kobolds. But why are they out here, it can't be a monster raid because there's too few of them unless… Crap we have to get to Naidiriv as soon as possible!"

Startled, Ferrex moved back and tried to walk back to the path, a sense of urgency obvious in his loss of composure.

"Wait, what's happening?"

"We have most likely found the scout group of a monster raid. If they're this close to Naidiriv then that means that the main force will be, at most, a 4 days march behind. "

"Oh"

Realising the seriousness of the situation, Godou turned to follow Ferrex.

A loud snapping sound rang in the forest around them. Jolting, both of them tense and drew their swords.

"Tch humans."

"We've been spotted."

"Kill."

5 kobolds came out of the forest. They wielded a variety of different weapons. They were armoured lightly to move around better.

"Damn it looks like they had guards set up as well. Get ready to run."

Quietly, Ferrex muttered that aside to Godou and then

"Slow!"

Without warning, he cast the slowing curse on one of the kobolds. Instantly, the targeted kobold's movements became slow and sluggish.

"What the-"

"A caster?"

"No it's a priest! Take out him out first!"

Though obviously unprepared by the strength of Ferrex's curse, the kobolds quickly regained their order and rushed at him.

Godou moved to block them off but 2 of them managed to get past him. One of the kobolds, armed with a hammer swung at Ferrex, aiming for his side.

"Divine radiance that grants protection, Barrier!"

A solid wall of light appeared in in front of Ferrex forming a vague circular pattern, ready to block the attack.

SHATTER!

"Such a weak barrier can't stop me priest!"

"Shi-"

The kobold's attack completely shattered Ferrex's barrier. Taking advantage of this, the kobold followed through with its mighty swing at him. Barely managing to block it with his sword, Ferrex staggered and fell off the side of the mountain. Straight towards the kobold's camp.

"Ferrex!"

Godou tried to dive forward, intending to grab Ferrex's before he fell. However, the kobolds in front of him blocked him and shoved him back. Powerless, Godou could only watch as his friend fell off the mountain.

- Crap I got careless. Stay alive until I reach you again.

Ferrex's voice sounded in his ear in the form of a whisper. Relieved, Godou calmed down and reviewed his current situation after giving the brief reply.

- Roger

He had been separated from his only companion and was currently surrounded by kobolds, 3 behind and 2 in front of him. Each of the kobolds appeared many times stronger than a wolf. In other words, they seemed beyond his ability to defeat. All in all, it seemed as if he was in a hopeless situation. Though if he died then the worst that could happen was a forced log out for 24 hours.

"That's one down one to go"

"Hehehe now that the annoying priest has been taken care of how should we play with you human?"

"We won't let you escape!"

However, Ferrex had told him to stay alive until they regrouped so if Ferrex were to make his way back up the mountain only to find Godou dead and also get ambushed by the kobolds as well then… The outcome of that seemed rather cruel. Running away from the kobold until they regrouped also seemed rather troublesome.

He needed to get rid of the kobolds. However, Godou's chances of doing that right now were rather bleak. Therefore he just had to change the battlefield.

Having decided that, Godou observed the kobolds who were now carelessly approaching him in a circle. They probably didn't expect him to put up much of a fight.

Exploiting this, Godou charged at the kobold who seemed to be the strongest and therefore the most careless. Coincidently, this was also the hammer wielding kobold that knocked Ferrex off.

"Create!"

The startled kobold failed to react in time as Godou charged in and stabbed it with a mana sword. The sword shattered as was smashed against the kobold's armour. By that time, the other kobolds had caught up with Godou and were about to drag him away from their comrade, sneering at his broken sword.

Then the sword exploded. They were all knocked off their feet. At the same time, a blinding flash of light erupted from below. Godou, who had been anticipating the explosion, was the first to recover from it.

Seeing all the kobold's lying on the ground, he decided to take his chances and run.

Conversely, he had noticed that the kobold hit by the mana sword had ended up being blown off the mountain as well.

Well, that's karma for you… One down four to go.

A savage light seemed to shine from Godou's eyes as he began to count his own tally.

Part 2

"Though barriers aren't exactly my strong point I didn't expect it to break so easily…"

Ferrex was currently falling. Though he would probably survive due to his abnormal perseverance stat, it would not be a pleasant experience.

To his dismay, Ferrex had noticed that he was also falling directly in the kobold camp as well. He could see the figures of about 10 other kobold scouts. That definitely would not make his landing any more pleasant.

"Slow"

As such, Ferrex did the only thing he could. He cast the slowing curse on himself to slow down his unscheduled descent down the cliff.

**Movement Speed has been reduced by 70%**

As soon as the curse took effect, Ferrex, felt all his movements become slow and sluggish.

The slowing curse was one of his most used spells. The reason for this was because it could be used in all different scenarios. As such, his mastery in it allowed him to use it without any prior incantations.

Whether it was used for hindering attackers or slowing down pursuers all this could be achieved through the use of that single spell. This time, Ferrex had used its slowing effect to slow down his descent.

- Crap I got careless. Stay alive until I reach you again.

Now that the problem of falling to death(?) had been solved, Ferrex sent a whisper to Godou.

- Roger

After landing lightly on the ground, Ferrex immediately dispelled the curse. Although the danger of falling to death had passed, he was not out of the woods yet.

"Tch A human has spotted us!"

"Eliminate all witnesses!"

Various shouts were called as the Kobold scouts spotted him. Although many of them were caught off guard, Ferrex didn't like his chances of taking them all head on.

"Holy radiance that blinds the wicked, Illuminate!"

Instead, Ferrex decided to use another one of the spells he learnt recently. A ball of white light appeared in his left hand and flashed brightly, blinding the kobolds.

Taking advantage of this, Ferrex rushed through the camp and ran back up the mountain path. In the same moment something fell from above and landed in the camp fire but Ferrex paid no heed to it. Due to his low proficiency with the Blinding curse, he did not expect it to stop the kobolds for long. And once their vision was restored, the scouts would use their tracking skills to chase after him.

That was, of course, what he wanted them to do.

It would take too long to handle them individually and frankly, Ferrex lacked the confidence that he could take them out in that way.

He was also still mindful of the fact the Godou was taking on a third of the scout party further up the path. Although Godou was a surprisingly adaptive individual, asking a level 15 no class to take on 5 level 50[?] kobolds was a bit too much. Hopefully, he could manage to stay alive until Ferrex reached him.

His heart pounded loudly in his chest. His legs were beginning to ache from the effort of running for so long. Ferrex scrutinised the path, making sure that the conditions were right for what he had planned to do.

This section of the path ran around the side of the mountain like a staircase. One slip or misstep whilst running could lead to a trip back down a steep incline of the mountain. There was no-one else in sight that could be classified as collateral damage. In other words, all the conditions were satisfied.

"Found you!"

"Human you shall not escape from us!"

Almost halfway back up the track, Ferrex heard the sounds of shouts and panting behind him. Turning around, he found that the scout group and reached him.

They had reached him faster than he had expected. Then again, he had no such hopes that a priest would be able to run faster than a scout. Luckily for him, it seemed as if the whole group had gathered to pursue him.

Okay, time to fight.

"I call upon all the mana here…

As the scouts charged at him, Ferrex stopped running and held out his hand, chanting. As he did so, his body began to shine.

"Let this bright light burn straight towards the enemy…"

This was one of the offensive spells that he had mentioned having to Godou when they were hunting wolves.

The shining light gradually became more intense. The wind roared around him. Dust started to swirl, forming a circular pattern on the ground around him.

"…and become the strike of fury… "

It was an extremely risky spell that consumed the caster's entire store of mana.

The light moved away from his body. It focused into a single point. Forming a shining orb which blazed like a miniature sun. It floated in front of his out stretched palm.

"MANA BURN!"

BOOOOOOM!

The orb rapidly expanded into large magic circle in front of him. A huge beam of light erupted from it blasting through the scout party, piecing through part of the road and causing an explosion in a distant section of the forest below.

The scouts directly hit by it were completely incinerated whilst the one who were grazed by it collapsed with parts of their bodies missing. Even the kobolds who had not been hit by the beam were blown away by the force of the spell, only to smash heavily into a tree or fall off the side of the mountain altogether.

Panting slightly from the strain of casting the spell, Ferrex took out the mana potion Lexus had given him and took a sip out of it. He would have to regain his mana on the run to help Godou.

Mana burn was an unusual spell for a priest to possess. It had been over eight years since Ferrex had been forced to use it. Conversely, he hadn't fought anything for over eight years either. There had been no need to.

The church of Freya provided everything for him, leaving him nothing to do but grow bored reading books. So when Godou had offered him to join his party, Ferrex had been more than ready to accept.

Long years of confinement had left him longing for excitement, however deep inside Ferrex was still hesitant on whether or not it was wise for him to be unleashed to the world. Unpleasant memories were starting to haunt him about that. After all, he was not just a priest but the–

"So you had such a trick up your sleeve human. Now I am glad I sent all my men I head first."

Oh crap, this could be a problem.

A large Kobold appeared from behind a rock, evidently unharmed by the spell. It was probably the leader, which explained why it had the intelligence to avoid the attack.

"Die!"

It ran to the apparently powerless Ferrex, swinging at him with a short sword. Ferrex leap to the side, barely avoiding the attack.

He had not used Mana Burn against the wolves was because he did not know how many of them there were and how many of them would be hit by it. He had also been responsible for healing and so careless use of his mana would endanger Godou as well.

The kobold leader also seemed pretty powerful compared to the other scouts. Leaping to the side also seemed like the wrong decision as well. Now he was in a situation where he had his back pressed against the wall and front under attack from the scout leader.

Nevertheless, a Kobold was still a just a Kobold. I'll just have to do this.

"Time to use my thump card then… Return to the living realm… The black land of darkness and corruption…"

Quickly deciding his next action, Ferrex chanted the incantation, pointing at the kobold corpses.

"The everlasting law of darkness calls… now drag them with you to their graves! Undead Rise!"

"Y Y You… you're a necromancer?!"

Startled, the kobold turned, expecting to see the remains of its fallen comrades resurrect as undead.

Seeing the opening, Ferrex rushed forward and kicked the kobold with all his strength… right between the legs.

"Uggg!"

**Critical Hit!**  
**Target has been immobilised.**

Then to make sure he chanted:

"Vengeful spirits that vow for revenge, Rebound!"

And directed the force of the kobold's armour hitting his leg back at it as well. Due to the nature of the rebound spell, the spell struck the kobold in the exact same place as the kick.

**Critical Hit!**  
**Fatal Blow has been struck, additional 29% damage.**  
**Target has been traumatised.**

The kobold gave a strange high pitched yelp and doubled over in obvious pain. Deciding to ignore it, Ferrex turned around. He needed to back up Godou as quickly as possible.

Ferrex felt grateful that the kobold had been stupid enough to fall for his bluff. He wasn't sure that he would be able to pull it off.

But seriously, what kind of priest uses necromancy? Moreover, there was no way that a small sip of a mana potion would have given him the mana need to cast such big spell as after using Mana Burn.

A shadow loomed over him, pulling him out of his musing. Sensing danger, Ferrex whirled around. The scout leader stood behind him.

"I"LL KILL YOU!"

Teeth grinded. Legs shaking. Veins popping out in anger. It yelled in a voice noticeably more high pitched than before. Its short sword has held up, ready to execute an overhead cut.

It was too late to attempt to block the strike, Ferrex belatedly realised the error in his judgement.  
With absolutely no mana left, his only option was to take the hit and attempt to counterattack afterwards.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH‼‼‼‼!"

Something fell from above and crushed the scout leader before it could attack.

Ferrex took a moment to register what he was seeing.

"Are you alright? It's not a good idea to turn your back on your opponent you know."

Rolling to his feet, Godou made his entrance.

Apparently, he had tackled a kobold scout off the mountain from above and somehow landed on the top of the kobold leader.

"Apart from having absolutely no mana left I'm fine. You?"

Slightly shocked by the turn of events, Ferrex asked the question worried. Godou's clothes were soaked with blood. Bits of dirt and leaves stuck onto his white cloak indicating that he had knocked to the ground a lot.

"A few cuts and bruises but nothing major"

Groaning, the scout leader shakily got to its feet.

"Humans you will pay for that!"

So it was still alive… Such a tenacious life force. Meanwhile the scout Godou had jumped off with wasn't moving. Was it dead? Ferrex looked around. The other scouts fighting with Godou were probably close by.

"If your companion is here then that means the rest of my men will be here soon"

Following his glaze, the kobold leader seemed to reach the same conclusion.

"If you're looking for the other kobolds, I already took them out."

Its hope was then immediately crushed by Godou's astonishing statement.

"Impossible! That's a bluff! There's no way my soldiers were defeated by a weakling like you!"

"They seemed to think the same thing."

Godou's voice became uncharacteristically cold as he spoke to the kobold leader. Then he removed a short sword, a dagger and some random pieces of armour from his inventory and dumped it front of the kobold leader. Ferrex recognised them as the equipment used by the kobolds Godou had been left to face.

"How…. Crap! I have to go and warn the main force that's going to attack Naidiriv. Crap! I shouldn't have said that!"

Feeling intimidated, the scout leader shoved Ferrex roughly into Godou and bolted. Unprepared for the surprise attack the duo were knocked off their feet.

Cursing, Godou got up, his right hand poised as if he were about to throw something at the retreating kobold.

"Wait let it go!"

Hastily, Ferrex called out to stop him.

"Why?"

"Warning Naidiriv of this raid group should be our top priority. Besides if we let him go we can get punitive force to follow his tracks and attack the main force when they're not expecting it."

Godou hesitated for a moment and then let his hand fall back to his side.

"Well if you say so… Should we rest here or start hurrying towards Naidiriv then?"

"I think we should change locations and rest up for a bit. Both of us are in no condition to fight if we run into another scout group."

"That makes sense. Okay let's go then."

The duo made their way back up the path. After 5 minutes of walking they came to a stop at a small clearing and rested, recovering their health and stamina through a combination of meditating and holy magic.

They also decided to forgo all further meals until they reached town. To make up for that, they hunted some rabbits and roasted them crudely on a spit during their resting time, intending to eat as much as they could before continuing on with their journey.

Due to their accelerated pace, they were able to arrive at Naidiriv by sunset.

Ferrex felt a sense of relief wash over him as he saw that the town was still intact. Secretly, he had been holding in the fear that the kobold leader had been setting up a trap and Naidiriv had already fallen to into the hands of monsters.

He felt a slight prickle on his back as they approached the town gates. It was almost as if there was an abnormally strong presence in the town.

Pushing his worries aside, Ferrex straightening his cloak and strode past the town guards with Godou close behind him.

They had to tell the local church about the incoming monster raid so that the town could mobilise a subjugation force before it was too late.

Part 3

Naidiriv didn't really seem that different from Tellap in terms of layout. Godou made such observations as they navigated through the town.

All the military and training buildings had a clear pathway to the town square. He assumed that it was to make it easier for the town to mobilise in the case of surprise attacks. The shops and pubs were located close to the town square, making it easier for them to attract customers.

In terms of its inhabitants, Tellap and Naidiriv were pretty similar was well. Kallamore was a kingdom where everything could be lost in a flash. As such the defenders of Kallamore were a closer knit bunch than the players of other kingdoms.

Every player new player than joined the rankers of the defenders and survived lessened the chance of Kallamore falling to monsters. But starting out in Kallamore wasn't an easy thing to do so the veterans were often happy to help the newbies. After all, they too had been forced to undergo such hardships.

As such, it was very easy for the two of them to get directions to the church. The people they asked seemed to catch a hint of what was going on and soon rumours began to spread across the players. The town became livelier than ever, with the defenders polishing their armour, sharpening their weapons and doing all sorts of other things in preparation for combat. All of them were waiting for the moment the quest notification was going to pop up.

They came to a stop in front of Naidiriv's church. It seemed smaller than Tellap's and more run down. The floors seemed slightly dusty as if it hadn't been cleaned for a few days.

They knocked on the door and waited a few moments before they heard the sounds of footsteps and a priest came to answer them, panting.

They explained the situation to the priest who said:

"Now that indeed is troubling. There should have been some powerful members of this church around that area. This raid group is likely to be comprised of more than just kobolds. You need to tell the mayor of this right away. Tell him that the church will lead this force."

After saying that he closed the door, leaving Godou and Ferrex alone with their thoughts.

Godou felt slightly puzzled though. Why didn't the quest notification pop up when they told the priest what was happening?

The priest smiled as he watched them go. It seemed like the church of Freya had decided to send more of their warriors to investigate. Of course he wouldn't let them escape. The followers of rival god's were often rich in resurrection energy.

The monster raid group was something he had not been expecting though. Though judging from the reports of the two Freya supporters it seemed to be comprised of kobolds. It was best to ignore it then. Kobolds were too weak to even be considered as sacrifices.

He would drain as much resurrection energy as he could from Naidiriv. And then he would move to another location and do the same thing, just as he had been doing in the past month. Afterwards, he would back to headquarters to alert the high priest of the loss of Embinyu's Divine Saint Knight.

But not yet. He needed more power. He needed enough to fit the requirements to use that spell in case he metthat blond devil again.

But first, he would have to worry about the issue at hand, namely, leeching Naidiriv dry. He could use the opportunity to quickly gather more energy. That's right, this was an opportunity that allowed him to gather power faster than if he were to take them down individually. Especially if high level defenders where involved.

But there was one thing that troubled him though. One of the Freya supporters had a familiar aura around him. That one most likely held a power similar to his own. Though, it seemed like it was either dormant or still immature…

He pushed aside his worries. He would not lose to such a young upstart.

After all, he was different.

He was the one chosen by God.

The Divine Saint of the Embinyu.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

They huddled in the dark room, clutching their blankets around them. The cold chill of the night penetrated the rough shack they had taken cover in. The full moon shone, allowing a beam of light to pass through one of the partially boarded up windows. The wind howled cruelly, rattling the entire shack and blowing more cold air into the shack.

One of them peered cautiously through the cracked window. Utilising the shadows to her advantage she took special care not to be seen.

"They're everywhere…"

With that quiet murmur she had reported the expected result.

The rest stayed quiet. There was no need for them reply. Not verbally at least.

The crunching of crushed snow underfoot was enough to remind them of the nightmarish hell they were currently enduring. Skeletal monsters roamed everywhere in the snow filled valley. Mist permeated their surroundings rendering optical visibility virtually useless.

Despite the barbaric conditions they were currently in the eyes of the 7 young children shone with resolution. The entire atmosphere around the group bespoke of a fire which refused to flare out.

Merciless training that weeded out the elites from the failures and at the same time ingrained a deep rooted hatred of the undead.

The children understood purpose of the exercise very clearly. They had understood that many of them would not survive if they decided to take the test. But still they preserved. This was necessary for the sake of their dream. Many of them had died.

Nevertheless, the rest endured it, awakening new talents and abilities, finally managing to survive on one of the harshest environments in Versailles. Of course this had other effects on the survivors as well.

To survive this training the children had learnt to hide their emotions.

They no longer screamed when they encountered a skeletal knight or when one of their number was taken down because they knew that screaming would attract others.

They had learnt to make cold and calculative judgements unfitting of children of their age.

They no longer tried to engage undead monsters in head-on assaults to retrieve fallen comrades because they would only be rushing to their deaths if they tried.

And yet… they did not become heartless killers either.

They no longer visibly expressed sadness or anger as such expressions could promote others to perform reckless actions.

They could make the judgement that it was better to abandon one of their comrades in head-on conflicts because it was more efficient to trick the enemy and launch a surprise rescue afterwards.

Thus a sense of unspoken trust and developed between each of the 7 children. These were strong bonds formed through shared horrors, triumphs and fear.

Thus as skilled dark knights and priests arrived to wipe out the undead and check for survivors they could safety tick off the training regime as successful.

After all, the children had become skilled fighters with the potential to become brilliant commanders and leaders.

Considering the fact that they could make level-headed decisions.

Considering the fact that their emotions and expressions could not be read during negotiations.

Considering the fact that they possessed deep care and understanding for comrades.

The higher ups of the Church would be extremely pleased.

"So it's time again"

Godou muttered this statement as he climbed into the capsule. He had moved it from his room to another unused on in his house. The capsule took too much space and frankly he liked to keep his room as plain as possible. That being said, he barely had anything in it apart from the basic necessities.

He had logged out of the game 8 hours ago to go to sleep. That meant than in-game 32 hours had past so it should be early in the morning a day and a half later. According to Ferrex's estimates that meant that the monster raid army would only be 2 days away from the town of Naidiriv.

This seemed strange to Godou because he had always thought that a warning should have been issued weeks in advance if such a large army suddenly appeared. No matter what Godou thought that 1 day was too short of a time to recruit people to fight. Particularly since the time acceleration was 4 times faster than in reality, some people need to be at work or school during that time. Then again maybe viritual reality was different.

Godou could fit playing Royal Road into his everyday life currently because he had a lot of time on his hands. He was currently in one of the "calm periods" of the month when he wasn't randomly challenged by a passing god or Campione to a life and die struggle. Normally he would spend this time getting a job or doing something productive but for mysterious reason his usual employers weren't giving him as many jobs as they used to. He couldn't but feel paranoid that this was the result of a certain trouble making Italian swordsman.

After all, that guy is an idiot in everything except fighting. Heck, last time I took my eyes off him he somehow time travelled into the 5 century and caused all sorts of incidents. That guy really is an expert at causing trouble for people. Damn it, have some consideration for others!

Godou could easily complain about the problems caused by the idiot known as the King of Swords, Salvatore Doni. Conveniently, Godou forgot all the problems caused by his own actions (this of course, also included time traveling into the 5 century but that's another story).

Then again, it was because of Doni that I started playing Royal Road. As a result of playing Royal Road, Godou had meet many new people and befriended them. Despite being NPCs, Ferrex, Mark and Lexus certainly were interesting people.

But it did seem like he had somehow gotten himself into a large incident again… Considering this was in a virtual reality game Godou didn't know whether that counted as good or bad luck.

Whilst travelling to the next town with Ferrex as per the request of another one of Godou's NPC friend, the duo had had an unexpected clash with the scouting party of a monster raid army. One way or another, they had survived and rushed off to warn the town they were travelling to, Naidiriv, about the monster army nearby.

On arriving, they had told the ones who needed to be told about the monster army. However, Godou found the reactions he got from the town really suspicious. He couldn't place his finger on why someone hadn't spotted any advance raid forces before.

Especially since the scouts he had found had been lighting a bon fire in the middle of a forest. One would have to be absolutely blind not spot the smoke trail. And if they were blind, then it probably would have been beyond hope to save them…

"Damn how much time am I going to waste reminiscing? After all that trouble I went to just to reserve time to play Royal Road."

That's right. Since the current problem of the monster raid army didn't seem like it would end anytime soon, Godou had, one way or another reserved all his time in the next two days to play Royal Road. Godou did not have a habit of skipping school to play games but luckily he didn't need to since it was the weekends.

Although, truthfully, he hoped that the raid would not last longer than 3 days(in-game). His family would start worrying about him becoming a hikikomori (a shut in) otherwise.

To Godou, virtual reality was really like a breath of fresh air. It was just so relaxing not having to worry about fending off the constant "attacks" from the girls around him.

Pushing his memories aside, Godou groped around the inside of the capsule, pressing the "ON" button. The was a slight humming sound and then–

**Would you like to connect to Royal Road?**

"Yes!"


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 2

The children lined up in a row in front of the altar. They were a few years older now. Their surroundings had also changed dramatically.

After being "rescued" from the ghostly town infested with undead, they had been taken in officially by the church and received training to further their individual abilities.

They stood now, in front of the key members of the church. Ready to accept the finality the fruits of their labours.

One by one they walked on to a platform in front of the altar, embedded with the powers of a divine gem, to be receive the blessing of revelation from the high priest.

One by one, they got off the altar, showing expressions of relief and joy. These expressions of course, could only be seen amongst themselves. After all the horrific experiences they had suffered the children had gained the appearance of an emotionless shell.

This of course was not true. They still had emotions. They just learn how to hide them from others. Only those who were close to them were able to read their subtle expressions. Getting close to them was no easy feat either.

However, to those who were close to them, their loyalty ran thicker than blood.

One by one, they got on the alter and received the "truth" of their existence. The blessing of revelation had the ability to reveal the hidden potential of people. It had a high chance of failure and would only activate on those worthy of knowing their "truth". However, those that had passed it were blessed with high positions.

One by one, the children accepted and passed the test.

One by one, they gained classes of high prestige, among them were Saints, Saint Knight and elite White Knights.

The audience stirred. It was the first time in 80 years that they had seen so many people past the test consecutively.

One by one, they progressed until there was only one left.

It was a young boy. Dark hair hung messily over his eyes as he strolled in front of the high priest.

The other children watched with curiosity. The boy was one of them. He had survived the same hardships they had and just like the rest of them obtained powers they normally wouldn't be able to possess.

Outwardly, their stares appeared blank and emotionless. However, on the inside they were filled with anticipation. The very notion that the boy would not pass the test was something they hadn't even considered. They were expecting great things from him. Of course he would not betray their expectations.

The boy stood in front of the high priest. The high priest uttered the incantation for the blessing and…

Nothing happened for a moment.

And then a flash of white light erupted from the platform. The source of it: the boy.

A powerful holy aura surged from him, flooding the room with soothing waves of power. It rapidly condensed and gathered around him becoming more and more blindly bright.

Then it exploded brilliantly forming the outline of an owl, the symbol of the church, and vanished.

The high priest trembled with excitement. The other key members of the church had similar expressions of shock.

Then, in a solemn voice, the high priest answered the question running through the minds of everyone present.

"So… You have finally appeared… Our Divine Saint…"

"Hi! Please accept this gift!"

Ferrex was bored. When he was bored he had a bad habit of doing strange things to entertain himself.

It had been about a day and a half since Godou had disappeared to do whatever foreigners do when then disappear. Unlike the natives to Versailles, foreigners like Godou were freedmen sent by Gaea, the Holy Seer.

"Are you part of the church? Where did you come from?"

It had been 8 or 9 years since the first foreigners started appearing on Versailles. According to Lexus, foreigners, or users and players as they called themselves, had first started appearing in the central continents and went around exploring and adventuring multiplying in numbers at an alarming pace.

"Are you waiting here for someone?"

Due to the power of the Holy Seer, players were able to resurrect a few days after being killed. However, their ability to manifest in this world seemed imperfect as they often disappeared every few days to recharge their souls or so Ferrex believed.

"Do you need something to be delivered?"

Ferrex understood and accepted the fact that Godou couldn't always be around, but he was bored… It seemed rather cruel of Godou to just leave him by himself in an unfamiliar town for so long.

Although Ferrex could survive and adapt to new environments well due to the training he had since childhood, he really didn't know how to get close to people easily. He didn't have a habit of talking to strangers either unless they were introduced by someone he trusted.

"Here's some money! Bless me!"

As such, he was completely clueless as to how to reaction in his current situation. Ferrex was currently surrounded by a group of low level players in the town square, all of whom seemed dead set on trying to wring every last bit of information he had about the monster army he had reported with Godou.

It had started the morning after Godou had disappeared. People were curious as to why the monster amry wasn't spotted sooner and had heard that the ones who alerted the mayor were wearing clothes from a church. Naturally, that description led to them finding Ferrex.

Initially, he had told them all they need to know but as soon as he finished telling them someone else would come up and ask for the same thing causing him to repeat himself. Some of them even came back and started giving cheap gifts and showering him with flattery.

Now really, these guys obviously have some ulterior motive for doing this, but why are they trying to talk to me and not some high ranking official?

Little did he know that from the eyes of the newbie players Ferrex appeared to a some sort of special event quest giver because he had been waiting in the same area in the town square for almost 2 days.

After wasting half a day's worth of energy responding to these advances, Ferrex had just decided to ignore them all. Gradually, some of the players left looking disappointed. However new people appeared out of nowhere joined crowd as well so there was no real difference.

"Have you ever…"

Sign… This is annoying. Godou hurry up and come back! In the corner of his eye, Ferrex could see some players wearing high level equipment watching the crowd around him with amusement.

Speaking of which more high level players seemed to have arrived in town, as well as some Kallamore Knights. Ferrex had heard rumours about why they were there but he didn't know if they were true or not.

Wait… were those town guards he was seeing hiding grins as they glanced over in his direction? Don't just leave me here! Help!

Although such trivial thoughts appeared in his mind, Ferrex kept his facial expressions as loose and blank as possible. Hiding his true thoughts was a useful skill he had picked up quite a while back.

Silently, he endured the pestering of the crowd as he waited for Godou to reappear.

Godou logged on to find himself in the same place he was when he logged off. Namely, in front of the church of Freya. It seemed to be noon.

Ding!

**Defend Naidiriv **  
**A monster army has been spotted close by and appears to be making its way towards Naidiriv. Due to mysterious disappearances of the scouts in Naidiriv, the presence of this army was not detected until a few days previously. Scouts have been sent out to track the progress of the army. The church of Freya has offered to lead this defence army. All those who are interested are to gather in the town square by nightfall today. **

**Difficulty: Unknown**

**Restrictions: **  
**Must be at the town square before the main party leaves.**

**Rewards:**  
**To be determined by your contribution in defending Naidiriv**

A quest notification popped up as soon as he logged on.

Good looks like I made it in time to help out. Now all that's left is to look for Ferrex…

After reading the quest information, Godou closed the pop up box¬ and looked around. The streets of Naidiriv were positively packed. Where did all these people come from?

Godou had arrived at Naidiriv at night so he had expected there to be more people around when he logged back in. However, he hadn't expected there to be so much. Looking at it, wasn't there at least 20 times more people on the streets?

Godou made his way to the town square following the philosophy that Ferrex would be somewhere around there. However he immediately disregarded this as he saw the state of the town square.

Finding Ferrex in a crowd like this was going to be hard. Everywhere Godou looked he there were merchants and other shop keepers selling wares and crowds of people around them. Then again, considering Ferrex's personality it didn't seem like he would be the type of person who would stay in a crowded area like this.

Coming to that conclusion, Godou decided to look in the less crowded areas like the back streets and alley ways. After knowing him for so long, Godou understood that Ferrex was someone who didn't mingle too well with strangers.

That being said, Naidiriv sure seemed to have a lot of back streets. Godou had been looking in several of these backstreets for over an hour now to no avail. He tried whispering to him as well but there was no response so Godou didn't think Ferrex had heard him.

On a side note, Naidiriv seemed to be a really environmentally friendly town. At about every 10 metres a tree had been planted. But, it's not like this world faces the RL problems of global warming right? Ozone depletion shouldn't be a problem because there's no modern technology to populate the atmosphere so was there any real purpose in having these trees here? Considering the fact that this was a town that was constantly under attack from monsters was it really okay to have so much flammable material distributed around the town?

Godou pondered on such trivial thoughts, as he started walking around the block to find the next back street. As he was just about to turn the corner when he saw a blur as something charged around the corner just before he did at an incredible speed before– CRASH!

"Woah!"

"Kyaa!"

The force of the collision knocked him off his feet. He looked up to see what he had crashed into. It was a girl. She had shoulder length dark purple(?) hair, the kind that could only have been obtained through character customisation and a reasonably cute face (though Godou couldn't be sure if this was her original appearance or not). Godou noted that she was wearing light armour and a grey scarf. She also seemed to be panting slightly.

"Oww Sorry…"

"Nah I'm fine…"

"More importantly, hide me!"

"Eh?"

The girl got up and looked around, seemingly frantic. Godou could hear the rumbling of footsteps the sounds of excited chattering. He was about to ask the girl a question but stoped when he saw what she was doing. The girl was staring at the branch of a tree directly above them, a look of concentration on her face.

Then she did something which would have been impossible for a "normal" human to do in reality. The girl jumped 10 metres in the air in a single leap and grabbed onto the branch, swinging herself on top of it.

What the– Godou was startled at this but not overly shocked. After all the ridiculous things he witnessed, simply jumping high wasn't really that impressive, indeed, it was almost nothing on the level of absurdity of being able to drop a lump of fire from the sky at will or recovering from fatal wounds in the matter of hours.

After all, this is a game where having superpowers and being able to use magic is common place. So perhaps this was the effect of having an extremely high Agility stat?

Noticing Godou's stare, the girl placed her one finger in front of her lips returning his glaze pleadingly in the universal gesture for silence. Godou barely had any time to nod in return as a ragtag crowd of people came across the corner. They seemed to be carrying a flag that said "Grey Phantom Fan Club".

"Come back! Add me as your friend!"

"Grey Phantom I have been ordered to drag you into my guild no matter what!"

"Come back! Let me shake your hand!"

Seriously, whether it's the virtual or the real world, you find weirdos everywhere.

Such a thought ran through Godou's mind as he stared at the group. Every single person in the mob seemed to have agility based class and wore the fanatic expressions of otakus at an anime convention. Now I see why that girl seemed do desperate to hide. Being chased by this kind of mob would scare anyone.

"Damn where did is he?"

"His tracks have vanished again. As expected of the Grey Phantom."

"Hey you in the white cloak, did you see someone wearing grey run past here?"

"Oh… ah they went that way."

Godou pointed in the direction of the town square. The crowd quickly charged in that direction, roaring at the top of their lungs. After making sure that they had left the girl dropped down from the tree, landing on all fours like a cat before straightening up again. Godou noticed that she had changed from her light armour to more ragged looking clothes.

"Thanks, this should keep them off by tracks until the defence quest starts."

"Oh, right… your welcome uhm… Grey Phantom-san"

"Ah! Don't call me that! My name's Reta. Sheesh, I bought this scarf because I thought looked cute and before I knew it I got labelled such a weird name."

"I am Godou… nice to meet you Reta?"

At some point Godou had noted that he had stopped using honorifics on people's names. It was probably due to the fact that none of the NPC's used them and the fact that the words of people who spoke languages that didn't use honorifics were translated without honorifics.

"Yeah… Now this should take them off my trail until a leave town"

Whilst saying this Reta removed her grey scarf and placed in inside her inventory.

"But man that was exhausting! They've been chasing me since morning."

"What a scary fan club. But why are you running away from that group in the first place? Wouldn't be better for you to just stay and listen to their requests?"

"I started out with that mentality and from that experience I have learnt my lesson. Once you've don't something for someone everyone else wants the same thing as well! And the crowd just keeps growing and growing! I just happened to get swarmed by those people when I walked into town because they recognised my battle gear. Normally I change out before entering town so that no one would recognise me but I forgot this time!"

"Ah right! My bad…"

Godou backed off slightly as Reta started rattling on like a machinegun to vent out her stress.

"So are you some sort of celebrity or something? Speaking of which why are people calling you such a video game like name?"

"Kinda… Well, unlike all the other Kingdoms which are full of guild wars, scammers and con artists, Kallamore is a place where people have to cooperate to survive. After a few battles, you pretty much will have met all of the strong players defending your area even if you don't know their names. In fact the actual names of these players aren't really that well know so players tend to give each other nicknames or call-signs for easier reference."

"So your call-sign is Grey Phantom huh…"

"Yeah, but don't call me that! Anyway enough about me, I'm assuming you're also planning to participate in the defence army quest like everyone else here."

"Yeah, speaking of which where did all these people come from? Was Naidiriv always this packed?"

"When was the last time you logged online?"

"Uhm… About 8 hours in reality."

"So you missed the news huh. Apparently this town, Naidiriv caught news of a monster army heading their way about a day or so ago and sent scouts to investigate. The truth is, this monster army is probably made up of the remnants of at least two other monster armies that another defence army was fighting. And to cut a long story short, the scouts sent to investigate met up with the other defence army along the way and we came to help."

"So basically, people from the other defence army are coming into town to join the new defence army."

"Yep that sums it up. I'll warn you now, those monsters are not to be underestimated. They joined up with weaker monsters and used them as scouts to make up think that they're composed of weaklings and them ambushed us when we were off guard. If we didn't have that squad of Kallamore Knight's with us then we would have been annihilated."

Godou recalled what he knew about the Kallamore knights. It was said that a single Kallamore Knight had the power to solo high level boss monsters that normally took an entire part of players to handle. If one had enough public Kallamore contribution points, they would be able to hire Kallamore Knights to fight for them.

"Hey! Did you get that sword from completing the basic training? Also you're equipment seems low level but most of them exclusive to religious orders. They probably give bonuses as well."

Reta's energetic voice broke Godou from his thoughts.

"Huh? Really? I never checked. I started this game recently and a lot of stuff happened."

"What you mean you never checked?"

Reta seemed to be looking at him with an expression that said "Is this guy for real?"

"Have you ever played any online games before?"

"Not really."

"Okay I guess I'll teach you as thanks for helping me. The first thing you should do when you get an item is use the identification skill on it or find someone with the skill to do it for you."

"Is that really necessary though? If you just equip the item and look at your status window you can find out what is does."

"Nope don't do that."

An instant refusal came in response to Godou's makeshift method of checking items.

"So items have properties that don't show up in the status window and others have severe debuffs and are cursed so that they can't be removed. If you have the identification skill, I suggest you use it on all you equipment now"

So there was such a terrifying possibility. Godou thanked his luck for not having run into any such items before. Immediately he followed Reta's advice and identified his current equipment. He failed a few times but in the end he was able to successfully identify all of them.

**Enchanted Travelling Cloak of Freya**

**The standard issue hooded cloak for travelling members of the order of Freya. Made with practicality and effectiveness in mind.**

**Durability:**  
**83/90**

**Restrictions:**  
**Member of the church of Freya OR**  
**Recognised by the church of Freya**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 5% Magic resistance**  
**+ Increased resistance against Heat and Cold**  
**Conceals the identity of the wearer when the hood is worn**  
**Due to the special properties of the material from which this cloak was made, it cannot be stained.**

* * *

**Hard Iron Sword**

**Awarded to those who completed the Basic Training Program. This widely used long sword is better than basic type weapons that are available in a blacksmith's workshop.**

**Durability: 50/54**

**Damage: 10-14**

**Restrictions:**  
**Strength 40+**  
**Stamina 35+**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 10 Strength**

**Hardened Leather Bracer**  
**Bracers made from Hardened Leather which offer better defences than similar bracers sold in shops.**

**Durability:**  
**20/30**

**Restrictions:**  
**Level 15**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 10 Defence**  
**+ 3 Strength**

* * *

**Hardened Leather Boots**

**Boots made from Hardened Leather which offer better defences than similar bracers sold in shops.**

**Durability:**  
**24/30**

**Restrictions:**  
**Level 15**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 10 Defence**  
**+ 3 Agility**

* * *

**Enchanted Cloth Tunic**

**An enchanted tunic given to the trainees of the Church of Freya. It has a minor enchantment embedded in it.**

**Durability:**  
**20/25**

**Restrictions: **  
**Member of the church of Freya OR**  
**Unofficial trainee of the church of Freya**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 5 Defence**  
**+ 3% Magic resistance**

* * *

**Enchanted Cloth Leggings **

**Enchanted leggings given to the trainees of the Church of Freya. It has a minor enchantment embedded in it.**

**Durability:**  
**23/25**

**Restrictions: **  
**Member of the church of Freya OR**  
**Unofficial trainee of the church of Freya**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 5 Defence**  
**+ 2% Magic resistance**

"Thanks for your advice"

"No problem, it's actually pretty uncommon to find some else who had finished the basic training though. A lot of the higher level players haven't even heard of it."

"Does that mean you've completed it as well?"

"Yup, I didn't go hardcore with it so it took me quite a while to finish it. Oh yeah! In some towns the training halls also offer a Beginner training course as well. If you manage to complete that then the instructor basically gives you a blank cheque for the reward. It's a lot harder than the basic training though, it took me three tries to pass it. Apparently there's a training centre after that as well but I don't think anyone's found one yet."

"Hitting scarecrows isn't the end of it huh…"

Godou shuttered as he remembered the mental fatigue he had suffered because of the relentless "Church of Freya style" basic training.

"So anyway where are we going? Are you looking for something?"

During the course of the conversation Godou had been continuing to walk around to look for Ferrex. Reta had followed him for some unknown reason.

"Yeah I'm looking for my friend."

"Need help? What do they look like?"

"Nevermind. It's almost nightfall so he should appear in the town square sooner or later."

After saying that, Godou and Reta made their way to the town square. As they arrived Reta was suddenly called over by a group of high level players. Seeing them, Reta parted ways with Godou after adding him on her friends list saying:

"See ya! Until we meet again!"


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 3

The boy who had been called and given the job as a Divine Saint looked around him on the corpse filled field wearing a robe that was now dyed red with blood. He looked a few years older than before. However, he was still nothing more than a child barely in his teenage years.

Just a few hours ago, this field had been full of combatants from both his church and the dark church of Beelzebub.

Looking around he could only see corpses. There lay the headless body of the former head priest. Everywhere he looked there was only dead bodies. His entire church had been annihilated. Among the wreckage he could spot the bodies his fallen comrades lying next to him. He wanted to escape to truth he had seen before him. These comrades were the ones who had suffered, endured and passed the same horrific experiences he had.

After all they had been through, he had secretly held the belief that together they were indestructible. However, reality was cruel. He had been foolish in his beliefs that he could protect everyone. The thought of protecting his comrades and being protected by them had provided him with strength.

However, the gods had shown him just how easily his power of friendship could be crushed. In the face of a far more overwhelming power he that his own could do nothing but watch helplessly.

Like him, the one who welded the power to crush his beliefs was the one who directly channelled the power of gods.

The Divine Saint Knight of Beelzebub.

Although both of them were supposed to be on the same tier, all the boy could see was the overwhelming difference between the two.

Further and further the boy sank into despair. It was only due to the power of the Divine Saint that he was able to return from the realm of the dead. Only to find that he had lost everything.

His mind broke. All the childish emotions he had suppressed were released. All his logical reasoning, all of his decision making skills, all of it caved in.

Despite his adult-like behaviour, he was really just a child,

Without any help,

without any intervention,

he really would become as his appearance suggested.

An emotionless shell.

A little while later…

"Yo! We meet again!"

"Yeah… bit sooner than I expected though…"

Reta greeted Godou with a wave as he joined the group of people in front of here. She was still wearing the same attire he had last saw her in so Godou concluded that she was probably still trying to go incognito. Godou had the feeling that he would be meeting up with Reta again but he didn't think it would be again so soon.

"Okay, since there's 5 people here how so we should be enough to make a party."

Indeed besides Godou, the other people gathered in front of Reta included Ferrex, a player wearing plate armour carrying a great sword and someone wearing a robe carrying a staff.

**You have received a party invitation. Would you like to accept?**

**You have joined the party.**

Godou's current situation was the result of a few events that took place shortly after first parting with Reta.

After scanning around the town square he had reunited with Ferrex in the crowd of players. By now there were at least 3000 people gathered in the town square. At least half of them seemed to be players. Godou remembered seeing about 50 strong looking knights with high quality equipment and war horses. These were probably the Kallamore knights. Strangely enough, there were no paladins or priests belonging to the church of Freya present.

After exchanging their greetings, Ferrex had promptly shoved a bunch of stuff ranging from smoke bombs to rye bread into Godou's hands. When Godou asked him about it, Ferrex merely shook his head and started muttering to himself. Something about strangers trying to burying him with gifts.

Remembering the advice he had given a short while ago, Godou used his identification skill on all the items.

Soon afterwards a representative from the church of Freya had stepped up the address the assembled crowd. Godou recognised the priest as the person who answered the door when he went to report the monster raid.

"Since we don't have much time, I will skip the usual long morale raising speeches and simply say this. My name is Seirph and I am a messenger sent by the church of Freya. The forces of the church of Freya have already moved to another place close to the monster army and are setting up camp. Everyone assembled here will move up to join them. That is all. And may Freya… be with us."

After saying that the priest started walking out of town. The Kallamore Knights and NPC soldiers slowly started to march out after him. Godou thought the speech seemed strange though, especially the last bit which sounded like it was only added as an afterthought. Murmurings of similar thoughts could be heard from the people around him as well. Godou was about to mention it to Ferrex when–

"ALL PLAYERS LISTEN UP!"

A loud voice suddenly split across the town square. Godou stared in the direction of it and saw one of the high level players he had seen call Reta over addressing the crowd.

"Before we leave we need everyone to form parties with each other if you haven't already done so. Those of you who haven't joined one yet please do so. I don't care if you think you'll just drag everyone down because of your class or level! I don't care if you think you're too good for a party! Just do it!"

Godou wonder what was going on. The mid-level players around him immediately started following these instructions so this seemed to be a routine event. He noticed that he wasn't the only one who seemed confused because there were also few players in newbie outfits staring around blankly.

At lost with what to do, he had simply decided to go with the flow and started walking around only to be pulled over by a strong tug on his arm. Thus this led him to his current predicament.

"What's going on?"

"This is one of Kallamore's basic battle strategies. Just listen, the details will be explained it soon. These strategies tend to vary from place to place but the ones organising this are high level players in the area. The player who just spoke has the call-sign Quick Shot." (Plenty of innuendo there)

Godou queried Reta who seemed to know what was going on only to receive her answer of "Just wait and see."

"So anyway while we wait for everyone to settle down why don't we introduce ourselves."

Reta spoke again, this time addressing all the people gathered in front of her.

"I guess I'll start off since no-one else wants to. Hi everyone! My name's Reta! I've started in Kallamore quite a while ago so if you have any question feel free to ask me. As for my class, well, it's a bit hard to explain so just think of me as an assassin. I think golden slimes are cute and like torturing sheep!"

… Was that last part really necessary? Godou's impression of Reta being normal was starting to crumble. Then again, that impression sort of wasn't that strong to begin with, considering the fact that she chose to a tree branch as her hiding place instead of other more easily reachable hiding spots.

"Okay! Your turn!"

Reta suddenly pointed at the player who seemed like a mage who started before saying:

"I am Flay, a level 101 Mage. I specialise in Ice magic."

Point.

"… I am a knight. That's all you need to know."

Point.

"My name Ferrex Dakef, a native to Versailles. Pleased to meet you. I can cast generic holy spells."

Godou noticed that the knight appeared displeased as he heard Ferrex's self-introduction but had no further time to ponder on it as Reta pointed at him. Speaking of which Godou didn't recall Ferrex casting anything but generic holy spells. Holy spells could be divided into two categories: generic spells and specialised ones.

Generic holy spells were the spells that did not require the caster to be in a religious order to use. In short, they were the spells used by beginner priests. Specialised holy spells on the other hand could only be used if one joined the order of a religion and their incantations often included the name the deity worshiped in the religion as well. Compared to generic spells, specialised ones where a lot more potent in terms of strength, duration and efficiency. Specialised spells also branched out into different categories, allowing them to do many things generic spells couldn't.

"I am Godou. I started playing recently and still don't have a class. Please take care of me."

"Okay! Now that introductions are over and done with, everyone try to get along with each other. Come on! Make small talk or something!"

"…"

Ferrex, Flay and the knight said nothing. Somehow this felt really awkward. Godou also noticed that knight seemed even more displeased when Godou clarified that he didn't have a class. The knight was now glaring in his direction.

"So did you find the person you were looking for?"

Reta cheerily broke the silence by asking Godou a question.

"Ah yeah. You just met him. I was looking for Ferrex."

"Oh so is he the friend you were looking for? I thought you were looking for a girl though…"

"Eh what gave you that impression?"

"Well, how should I put it… Although you don't seem like a bad person you give off the vibe of playboy or a pimp. Well, how should I put it? You just seem like someone really used to being around women."

"D D D Don't just go accusing someone you just met an hour ago such things!"

Despite how much he wanted to deny it, Reta's statement shook Godou to the core. In actual fact, many of his friends and acquaintances in reality had told him this fact but he had always thought that they were joking around or had a misunderstanding of some sort. But to have an absolute stranger point this out was really startling...

Just who are you calling a womaniser! Kusanagi Godou was certainly not that sort of lowlife. Though there were times when he had to rely heavily on his female friends… especially if it involved using his unreliable powers but… Nope don't think about it. That kind of thing was only because the situation demanded it–

"Well, that's what my woman's intuition tells me."

"W W Woman's intuition?" How frightening.

"Yup! It also tells me that there are aliens on Mars, fairies are real and that shop assistants are all scammers."

Okay… Reta, I don't get how your mind works at all. That being said, fairies were actually real apparently but aliens? At this point Godou decided to give up thinking any deeper into this.

"OKAY, ARE YOU ALL IN PARTIES NOW?"

As the crowd settled down, the player who was apparently known as Quick Shot started to talk again.

"The level of cooperation between players is a lot lower than the NPCs because there's no real chain of command between us. Therefore, the players can't divide can't separate themselves into specialised units full of people with the same class. We can't use complex strategies either because of this so why bother trying? We could easily get slaughtered if we tried and got ambushed because we can't react in time. Not to mention the fact that the mobs don't seem to attack in waves of one type or level either.

One of the solutions that we developed over the course of our time here to compensate for this was to divide everyone up into smaller groups with at least one experienced person in it to reduce causalities. Just think of your own group as a single hunting party and try your best not to get in anyone else's way. Each group should have people of differing levels and abilities to help them react faster in unexpected situations."

"WHY DO WE NEED THIS SORT OF SYSTEM? If I have if fight while dragging a bunch of noobs behind me then I'd rather just fight alone!"

It was the knight in Godou's party who had spoken up.

"This system is the product of many trails and errors that we have created for the sake of surviving in Kallamore. If you don't want to follow it then feel free to fight the monster army on your own"

"Rather than fighting with a party full of leeches wouldn't be better for Kallamore to have high level players like me growing stronger?"

Generally the players in Kallamore were welcoming to new players because the more defenders, the lower the chance of Kallamore being overrun with monsters. There were exceptions to this though. There were high level newbie players who had yet to realise the importance of having strong comrades and only saw everyone else as competition. Players from other kingdoms who had just arrived in Kallamore were also exceptions for the same reason. Nevertheless, the attitudes of these exceptions would change after joining in a defence quest or two.

Looking at the high level equipment worn by the knight it was evident that he was part of the latter group.

"So you're saying "quality over quantity" then huh. It might sound like a valid reason but aren't you just against it because don't get a chance to monopolise the drops and experience?"

"Even if you argue "quality over quantity" Kallamore already has the best quality it is. Or are you saying that you're stronger than a Kallamore Knight?"

It was Reta who started to join in in reprimanding the knight.

"That –"

"In the other kingdoms you can use whatever half-assed methods you want but you're not in another kingdom right now are you? Here in Kallamore, we have to cooperate with each other do things seriously instead of fighting over the drops. Kallamore needs more strong players in it and the best way to get strong players is to help the lower levels level up."

"HOW DO WE KNOW THAT YOU'RE NOT TRYING TO EXPLOIT THE REST OF US IN SOME WAY HUH?!"

The knight seemed to go red in the face as he started shouting back at Quick Shot who just calmly replied:

"If it's experience you're concerned about then don't worry, there will be plenty of mobs rushing at you trying to rip your head off. If it's drops you're after then go raid a monster village, there's plenty of them out there. Just keep in mind that if you start infighting during the battle then you'll be the one digging your own grave! And if you don't die in battle, there will be plenty of bored bounty hunters out there to come after you."

"BUT STILL, WHY DO I HAVE TO GET STUCK WITH SOME NOOB WHO DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A CLASS!"

"How long do you intend to stand here and argue? The soldiers are moving away as we speak and frankly all you're doing is causing trouble."

"GREAT, NOW I HAVE TO LISTEN TO ANOTHER FUCKING NOOB WHO HASN'T JOINED A RELIGION YET."

Wow this was getting out of hand. Even Ferrex had jumped into the argument as the knight pointed at Godou.

Instead of responding to the knight, Ferrex looked over at Quick Shot and said:

"Do you mind if I handle him. At this rate we will be left behind."

"This seems interesting, okay I'll let you take care of this stranger."

Was the reply Ferrex received. Meanwhile, Reta suddenly stirred next to Godou as she suddenly started a conversation.

"Hmmm you two seem pretty close. Ah, so that's how it is!"

"How what is?"

"You're one of those guys who bat for both camps aren't you?"

"What?! How did you come to that conclusion?"

"I mean, look at Ferrex! Getting so heated up for your sake! You even have matching cloaks! Fu fu fu just how many flags have you been raising until now?"

Reta stared at him strangely feverish expression, her eyes shining with enthusiasm.

"No no no that's not how it is! Stop letting your imagination run wild!"

"Oh, so you only swing that way then… well that's fine as well. I'll be rooting for you!"

"Don't just ignore what I said! Listen to me!"

Godou tried his best to argue in his defence against Reta who had steered the conversation into a very strange direction but seemed to be losing ground.

Hmm, was it just him or did Flay just take a few steps back? Godou noticed that the other the guys around him were also slowly backing off. Some of the girls were starting staring at him with the same feverish expression as Reta. What is the uncomfortable feeling I'm getting?

The knight they had been arguing with also had a disgusted expression on his face while Ferrex just… had the same poker face on which… wasn't really helpful in this situation. All these stares where starting to hurt. Godou pulled the hood of his cloak up to hide his face.

"Anyway…"

The one to break the silence as Ferrex.

"If you're just here to cause trouble then it would be better if you just didn't try."

"Are you trying to pick a fight punk?"

"People like you will cause more harm than good on the battlefield. Therefore it would be best to take you down before you can cause trouble. After all, it's not like you're going to die."

"Oh bitch! If you're asking for a duel then I accept!"

"Yep that's exactly what I'm suggesting."

**A Duel has started.**

As soon as that message appeared, the two combatants moved simultaneously. Meanwhile gambling calls started as spectators started to bet on the winner. Reta dragged Godou a fair distance away as the crowd around the two backed off to give them space.

The knight drew his great sword and charged at Ferrex. Meanwhile, Ferrex raised his hand towards the knight and muttered:

"Slow"

A bolt of light flew and struck the knight, slowing his movements to a crawl.

"Oh, so he can use magic. Then was I wrong to assume that Ferrex was a paladin because he had a sword?"

Next to Godou, Reta started to give some helpful commentary on the fight.

"HAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

The knight's movement speed suddenly sped up, even exceeding his original speed despite the 70% movement reduction from Ferrex's curse. He made a diagonal slash at Ferrex who just barely managed to duck under it.

"So to counter the effects of a slowing curse, he used an even stronger movement buffing skill. A brute force strategy but it was the correct choice. Ferrex will be in trouble if he lets that knight set the pace."

The knight seemed to realise this was well because he started to speed up, delivering a series of heavy blows in rapid succession.

"Shield Commandment!"

To face this onslaught, Ferrex had activated a spell of some sort. A dense silver aura manifested and covered his body and equipment. Each of the attacks delivered by the knight struck Ferrex squarely. However, Ferrex remained unmoved. It was as if he didn't feel the attacks at all.

"Oh that's a surprise, is Ferrex a war priest? He just used one of the class restricted war priest spells."

"War priest?"

"Priests are generally divided into two categories. Ones that can use weak AOE support spells to multiple targets and ones that can use strong support spells but only hit a single target at a time. War priests are an extreme branch of the latter. War priests aren't really that popular though because although their spells give large bonuses, they only last a few seconds and have long cool downs."

While they were having this conversation, the knight, seeing his attacks dealing no visible damage to Ferrex, had stepped back, holding his sword back in preparation for a stronger attack.

"IMPACT…"

"So this was what that guy was so confident about. That's an advanced Knight skill that has the ability to deal a large amount of damage and stun the target all in the same move. But wow, that stance is full of openings. Too bad…"

"…BREAKER!"

"… it won't be enough to break the defensive buff of a war priest."

The knight's great sword glowed orange as swung towards Ferrex viciously. It struck Ferrex on the side but just like the previous attacks it was ignored. The knight seemed shocked at this and thus was too slow on the uptake as Ferrex wrapped his arm around the knight's great sword trapping it between his arm and his body.

The knight could have been retrieved his sword through brute strength but before he could react Ferrex directed his palm in the direction of the knight's face and chanted:

"Vengeful spirits that vow for revenge, Rebound!"

"GAAAHHHHH!"

A dark ripple in the air seemed to travel from Ferrex's palm and struck the knight in the face. With a cry, the knight was blown 5 metres backwards, sword and all.

"Well I'm lost with that one. I don't think I've seen that holy spell before."

Probably because that was a dark spell not a holy one… Seriously, church of Freya what are you doing? Godou felt such retorts welling up inside him but he chose not to release them in order to concentrate on Ferrex's fight.

But this time, the silver aura around Ferrex had vanished. However, one could say that it had served its purpose. The knight, who seemed to have the advantage moments ago, was now stunned and unable to move due to having all the power of his skill rebound on himself.

"Arms Commandment!"

A violent red aura manifested this time around Ferrex as he walked towards the knight. He drew his previously unsheathed sword and stabbed the knight in the chest.

"GAAUKK!"

The knight gave a strangled cry before dissolving into a mass of grey flames.

**The Duel has ended. **

**The winner is Ferrex Dakef**

"Although being stunned doubles any damage you receive, I didn't expect Ferrex to be able to finish him off with a stab. Must have been a strong offensive buff. He was wearing high quality armour after all and a hard iron sword was used so the base damage shouldn't be that high. Also, those war priest spells lasted longer than I expected as well. Ferrex's proficiency with them must be pretty high. He didn't use any incantations for them either…"

Godou was also surprised at this. Although he knew that Ferrex was a lot stronger than the current him, it occurred to Godou that he still didn't know the upper limits of Ferrex's strength.

Having taken out the knight, Ferrex started to follow the last of the departing soldiers. The assembled players watched him stunned for a while until they came to their senses and started to follow his lead.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

Help came.

It came in the form a banner portraying a beautiful woman. The Order of Freya, which had been allied to now eradicated church had come to search for survivors.

Having heard of the might of the Order of Beelzebub, the High Priest of the Order of Freya had even given permission for their own Divine Saint to mobilise and help in the proceedings in the case of an emergency.

In the end, they had only found one survivor. It was a young dark haired boy. To have been able to survive a battlefield in which all of his order had fallen in showed that the boy was not ordinary.

They suspected his power.

There were talks of what to do with the boy. Some suggested that they absorb the boy into their own religion. But others argued against it.

They feared his power.

They feared the might of the Divine Saint Knight of Beelzebub who would come looking for the boy once he learnt news of a survivor.

They feared what would happen if the boy were to turn against them for they had no-one else but their own Divine Saint who could stand up against him.

In the end, the conflict was resolved by the decision of Divine Saint of Freya:

"I will take him with me and go to somewhere where they would least expect it."

To which the High Priest replied:

"Fine, but don't think that you can use this as an excuse escape work. Come to think of it, I know the perfect place to send you. You can go there to try to spread our religion and scout for other talented recruits. Oh and try to think up of a plausible training method to speed train them while you're at it…"

"Will Naidiriv be alright if so many of us leave?"

That thought had occurred to Godou as he left town and had been bugging him ever since so he decided to ask current companions about it was they walked.

"Don't worry. The two largest settlements in this area, Naidiriv and Tellap, will have about 10 000 inhabitants in total, including both NPCs and players. Considering that they are military towns, about a third of this population will have been properly trained to fight monsters. This means that they have a combined regular garrison of about 3000 fighters. The quest notification popped up in Tellap as well so some of the soldiers from here came from there as well."

"But isn't that the about the same amount of people who just left Naidiriv?"

"I think you're forgetting the fact that 1000 more defenders joined Naidiriv in the last few days."

"Yup! That's exactly right Ferrex. Because of the recruits from remnants of the other defence army, Naidiriv will still have about 500 defenders left if something goes wrong. Remember, when sieging a stronghold you need many times more attackers than defenders to succeed so 500 people should be enough to stall for a while."

"While these towns aren't exactly fortresses, they were constructed during the last Kallamore-Haven war as one of the middle lines of defence so they much should be enough to hold out until help arrives with that much. Remember the walls in Tellap Godou? Those were constructed to be strong enough to withstand various attacks from tunnelling, catapults and magic. (Though, they're still incomplete…)"

His queries were answered by the experienced combination of Reta and Ferrex. After a few hours of traveling, Ferrex had come out of his shell and was now able to converse normally with all the other party members.

The defence army had left Naidiriv approximately 5 hours ago and had been following Seirph's lead ever since. Reta had forced a conversation between all the party members during this time allowing them to learn about each other's tendencies and favourite attacks. Due to the lack of a tank in the party this process was especially important for their team, or so Reta said.

Earlier on Godou had asked about why Quick Shot was so insistent about them all being in parties. Reta had readily given him a long explanation on it which when something along the lines of:

"Fighting in parties with experienced players increases the survival rate of new players. Since we're only about to fight a minor skirmish instead of a major battle so were are not likely to that many strong monsters, also, the rewards for high level players aren't that great so letting the newbies grow has priority. Normally many high level players wouldn't participant but stay back in town in case something happens. This case is an exception since the monster army was discovered so late."

From there conversations, Godou learn about the main weapons used by his unfamiliar party mates. Instead of blades, Reta used grey fist protectors as weapons which she claimed to have gotten by completing beginner training centre and were, apparently, bound to her. Flay was using a staff that gave bonuses to ice magic.

Godou found Flay easy to get along with and so added him on his friends list as well. After all, there was no harm in broadening his social networks.

Speaking of which, the concept of magic seemed fairly detailed considering that this was supposed to be a game. Godou had come across the concept of magic in Royal Road during the basic education. Spells were constructed in the form of circles or layers to produce attacks and other effects.

These layers were constructed during the time a spellcaster chants the spell incantation, though apparently if your skill proficiency was high enough or if the spell was simple enough, the construction process would take place when you say the spell name instead of the incantation. Complex spells have multiple magic circles and activate in multiple stages.

Spells also interfered with each other when they collide. Supposedly, spells of the same or similar elements would power each other up whilst spells of opposing elements would cancel each other out. There were also books that further explained this concept but Godou couldn't make heads or tails of it so he had given up on reading them.

Flay apparently didn't know the finer points either so Godou guessed that it wasn't necessary to knowledge to become a mage.

Mages were the name of spellcasters who used magic spells in combat. Magic scholars where spellcasters who researched in the development of new magics and experimented in the construction of new magic circles.

Magic could be learnt if one has a magic-related class or an intelligence stat of over 300.

Godou hoped that they were close to their destination by now. His hunger saturation level was starting to drop to dangerous levels. The path they were going was very convoluted and so he had lost track of how to get back to Naidiriv. The sun had set quite a while ago so they were walking in the dark. At some point they had started hiking up a mountain which wore down his stamina as well.

"I can sense strong holy presence up ahead. We might be close to our destination now…"

Ferrex left the statement hang as if he had read Godou's mind.

After 20 more minutes of walking they were nearing the peak of the mountain when–

Ding!

**You have entered the vicinity of The Lost Temple of Lou. **

**Due to being in close proximity of one of the Ancient Wonders of Versailles the following bonuses have been gained. **

**The Lost Temple of Lou is one of the most sacred treasures of the Church of Lou. It was constructed in ancient times as a holy place of worship for the God of light, Lou. Its location was thought to be lost over 500 years ago. If the location of this temple is told to the Church of Lou a large reward will be given.**

**+ 50% Health**  
**+ 50% Mana**  
**+ 50% Stamina**  
**+ 30 in all stats**

**The following information is available due to the completion of the Basic Education:**  
**Due to the presence of a Divine Gem, the effects of holy magic have been doubled and the costs of casting holy magic have been halved. The path to this Temple randomly changes over time.**

A large white temple came into sight further up the mountain. It was a magnificent piece of architecture. Tall pillars of marble supported a carefully crafted roof giving the temple an aura of majesty. It stood near the peak of the mountain in near peak condition. It was an irreplaceable relic of the past. A survivor of the changing tides of time. It emitted a slight glow, like a beacon of light in the dark.

The fighters in the army who had arrived were waiting in plateau a bit below the building. The party moved to join them.

"I still don't see any paladins."

"So is this where we are supposed to meet? It feels too quiet."

"I can smell the stench of the battlefield. Did the monster army reach here already?"

"Wow such huge buffs, but wait, if the church of Freya had information on such a place then why didn't they tell us about this sooner?"

"Why is the Church of Freya waiting at a place belonging to the Church of Lou?"

The murmuring of the people around him reflected Godou's feelings. Although they were supposed to be safe now, why was the unshakeable feeling of "calm before the storm" so heavy in the atmosphere?

Even Ferrex was muttering "Hmm…what's this? Why is there Sacred Energy here?" as he looked around.

It took about another 10 minutes for the rest of the army to catch up to them. Eventually, the whole 3000 man army was assembled, the NPCs in an ordered and ready formation while the players stayed in a jumbled mess of parties. They waited for someone from the Church of Freya, which was supposedly leading the army to show up, dissent spreading across their ranks the whole time.

"Hey what's going on?"

"Where's the Church of Freya?"

Finally, a priest, the one who had named himself as Seirph appeared he was bombarded by various.

"QUIET! IF YOU LOT DON'T SHUT UP HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET ANY ANSWERS?"

The Captain of the Kallamore Knights silenced them. For saying:

"Now you have some explaining to do! Some of my friends are paladins stationed in this area. If the Church of Freya really was here then they would have met up with me by now. Thus I find it unbelievable that you really are part of the Church of Freya. Identify yourself and state your intentions!"

"Ha ha ha ha to be exposed by such shoddy reasoning, I really am getting lax. I didn't lie though, the Church of Freya really is waiting for you here. Dispel!"

The ground suddenly rippled as a powerful illusion was dispelled. The ground was suddenly covered in bloodstains and corpses. Godou noticed the all of the corpses bore a certain emblem. The symbol of the Church of Freya.

The army was suddenly thrown into a state of confusion. Many of the soldiers were starting to point their weapons at Seirph. However, their sense of discipline was strong. They would not attack unless attacked first or commanded to.

"As for my name and intentions, well, I guess these no need to hide it any longer… I am named Seirph, the Divine Saint of Embinyu! And my intentions are… to sacrifice you all for the sake of my holy order!"

Part 2

"From your actions and words it is clear that you are an enemy of Kallamore! As such we, the peerless soldiers of this fierce kingdom will answer your challenge with the appropriate force!"

"You misunderstand... This will not be a war. This will be a one-sided massacre! Sacred Barrier Field Activate!"

"ALL SOLDIERS CHAAAARRGGEEE!"

A huge transparent dome shaped barrier was erected around the army. It enclosed a circle of a radius of 1 km in which nothing could get in or out. Additionally, a dim green light shone form the barrier, providing some light to the area within it.

Seirph watched with amusement as the army charged at him in an wedge formation with the horse riding Kallamore Knights in the lead. No doubt the famed knights of Kallamore would give a heft amount of resurrection energy when offered as sacrifices.

This sort of formation used the Kallamore Knights as an emotional cushion for the uncertainties of the army. The advantages of this type of charge were that the soldiers would keep fighting as long as they saw the Kallamore Knights leading the way. However if the knights were to fall then the momentum of the army would crumble.

"Holy Lance!"

Upon reaching this conclusion, Seirph cast an advanced level holy spell. The was a very common belief that holy magic had no offense power unless used against the forces of darkness. This of course, was not true. Holy magic had just as much potential in dealing damage as all the other elements. It just also happened to have the ability to heal as well.

Seirph's mastery in such offense spells, had of course long past the stage where he needed to chant incantations.

A wide magic circle formed vertically in front of him and multiple golden lances erupted from it, hurtling at the knights like lasers.

At the signal of their leader, the knights scattered in all directions and avoided the spell. It flew past them and smashed into the soldiers behind them.

PIERCE. PIERCE. PIERCE. PIERCE. PIERCE.

The lances easily impaled the unlucky front line defenders in their path and continued piercing through to hit the defenders behind them as well.

Many of the soldiers died instantly to this attack. Some fell, dissolving to grey flames whilst others died leaving behind mangled corpses.

**You killed a soldier. Resurrection Energy has increased by 123**

**You killed a player. Resurrection Energy has increased by 38**

**You killed a soldier. Resurrection Energy has increased by 84**

**You killed a player. Resurrection Energy has increased by 45**

**You killed a player. Resurrection Energy has increased by 25**

**You killed…**

Now, time to take advantage of the fact that the Knights have been separated from the army. Seirph ignored the rapidly incoming Kallamore Knights and directed his attention to the corpses lain across the battlefield.

"Resurrect!"

A mass of dark shadows surged out of the ground and was absorbed into the bodies. The corpses of the Order of Freya twitched and moved. Groaning, they crawled to their feet, their bodies elongating and growing larger until they became something barely recognisable as humans.

Demonic spirits!

The demonic spirits rose up from behind the Kallamore Knights, separating them from the rest of the army.

"Attack!"

Following his orders, the demonic spirits started to attack the army.

"Y Y You… Don't ignore us!"

The Kallamore Knights showed signs of hesitation for a split second before continued to charge at him.

Taking on this many Knights all at once would be very time consuming if at his current level so in this situation,that spell should be used.

"Barrier Wall"

Having come to that conclusion, Seirph cast a protective spell to buy some time for him to chant incantations. A bubble of green light formed around him just as the knights started their assault.

"O heavenly messenger come hither and deliver this plead to the almightly god…. O one who governs all life, thou faithful servant requests thou might."

CRACK!

The barrier around him was already starting to collapse from the assault of the Knights but still, Seirph stayed calm. Proud Knights of Kallamore, be honoured, for I am about to show you the true might of one who directly serves the gods!

"I call upon thee, great one who rules over the cycle of death and resurrection, grant your servant the strength to prove the righteousness of thou faith."

A shining magic circle manifested at his feet, bathing him with golden light.

"I beg of you, for I am thy vassal, eternally steadfast and eager."

CRACK!

In a few seconds the Kallamore Knights would break through. But that was fine.

"I beg of you, for I am thy medium, a subject of thou might and power."

CRACK!

The spell had already passed the stage of being stoppable.

"I beg of you, for I am the symbol of Embinyu, may you be revered by your followers and feared by your enemies."

CRACK!

This was one of his few Divine Saint spells.

"Blasphemers! Fear me for my power! And cower as you experience the wrath of the gods!"

CRACK!

A thump card on par with the Divine Possession of the Divine Saint Knights.

"O powerful one who directs the flow of life and resurrection, grant me the power to dominate the pagans and liberate them from the shackles of life! Heaven's Calling: Ascension of Embinyu!"

**-10 000 Resurrection Energy has been consumed.**

**-Heaven's Calling: Ascension of Embinyu has successfully activated. **

**You have gained a form ascending that of all mortals. 20 resurrection energy will be consumed per second while this spell is active. If there is no more resurrection energy then this form will deactivate.**

**The mastery of all other learnt skills and spells has been raised to the maximum possible level.**

**You have gained 10 angel wings. Flight is enabled.**

**Automatic magic defences have been enabled.**

**Other spells of the Heaven's Calling series cannot be used in this form.**

**The power of Holy Magic is quadrupled. The power of all other magics is doubled.**

**+ 2500 to all stats**

SHATTER!

The light shining on him solidified on his back in the form of multiple golden wings just as the Knights finally managed to destroy the barrier around him.

"You will be first sacrifices then huh…"

While presenting a benevolent smile, Seirph hovered over the heads of the Kallamore Knights, like a brilliant angel shining in the darkness of the night.

Part 3

Just as the defence army was about to follow the lead of the Kallamore Knights, they sudden found themselves surrounded by demonic spirits. Although the army vastly outnumbered the demons, for some reason, the players were the ones who felt like they were being pushed back. There were several reasons for this though.

Firstly, the army was worn out from about 6 hours of continuous marching and some of the weaker fighters were already suffering debuffs from low stamina and hunger saturation.

Secondly, because they suddenly found themselves surrounded by enemies, the morale of army took a big hit. The morale of the army had not been raised by any inspirational speeches at the beginning of the campaign either. If they tried to escape then they would run into a barrier which wouldn't break no matter how many times they attacked it. All these factors resulted in another heavy debuff due to morale, preventing the army from fighting in their best condition.

And lastly, the demonic spirits were very tough to handle, some requiring multiple parties to hold back, let alone kill. The fact they gained a bonus in stats because it was night time didn't either. Occasionally one of the demons would fall under the assault of the fighters in the army, only to rise up again as if completely unaffected.

Eventually, the defence army ended up being separated in the tide of the battle. Ferrex's party had lost sight of everyone else as they battled with a demonic spirit of their own in the forest below the plateau.

They had been fighting with it for quite a while now and had yet to bring it down even once. On the other hand, the demon seemed groggy from its sudden revival but gradually its movements were starting to become sharper and sharper.

"Ice Cage!"

"Slow!"

Both Flay and Ferrex cast spells in order to hinder the movements of the demonic spirit. However, it charged through these spells as if completely unaffected by them.

The demon then slipped passed the vanguard of Reta and Godou with great speed, reaching the members of the party with weaker defences at the rear before they realised it.

The 2 metre tall demonic spirit swung its arm powerfully at its nearest target, which in this case happened to be Flay.

The ice mage died instantly, bursting into grey flames as he was struck. It seemed that the demonic spirit's strength was also something to be reckoned with.

"Shield Com– Urgh!"

As the demonic spirit switched its sights onto him, Ferrex tried to cast a defensive spell but was stuck before he could finish.

A sharp jolt of pain ripped through his body as the demon stabbed him through the heart with a knife-hand thrust. It ripped its hand out of his chest roughly, letting out a howl out of challenge. Ferrex collapsed to the ground face first as blood spurted out of the irregular shaped hole in his chest, colouring the ground around him with blood.

**You have suffered a fatal wound. **

**You will slowly lose HP over time. **

**All methods of healing are no longer effective**.

"…Shit…"

He lay there powerless as a feeling of numbness spread across his body. His vision blurred and then finally, he blacked out.

It had been a long time since this had happened to him. If he remembered correctly the last time had been about 8 years ago during that time…

**You have 0 HP. **

**You have died.**

By all rights he should be dead now. He should be joining his old friends and comrades in the realm of the dead. But why was he still conscious? Surely that spell was still unavailable for him to use…

**4211 Resurrection Energy has been converted to Soul Power**

But of course! That was why… Ferrex reprimanded himself forgetting such basic knowledge. Regardless of how hard he had tried to forget his past, such an important piece of information shouldn't have been forgotten in the first place...

**Heaven's Calling: Return is activating. **

**4211 Soul Power has been consumed.**

After all, no matter how he tried. He could not deny what he was…

**Heaven's Calling: Return has successfully activated, you have been completely revived. **

**Due to an excess of Soul Power, your health, mana, skill cooldowns, stamina and hunger saturation level have been completely reset to the maximum value.**

Ferrex regained consciousness to find himself still lying face down. Heaven's Calling: Return was a spell that automatically resurrected its caster by using Sacred Energy as a fuel source. Ferrex had heard about Blood Necromancers possessing a similar spell that could resurrect the caster as well.

However, Heaven's Calling: Return was different from the Blood Necromancer spell "Power to Reject Death" in many ways.

First of all, in the case of Heaven's Calling: Return, the caster did not lose any experience or skill proficiency upon death. The ones who killed them did not gain any experience either. The caster was not resurrected as an undead, but in the form they were in before death. In short, Heaven's Calling: Return was a miracle that ignored the event of the caster dying in the first place.

Most importantly, it was different from the Power to Reject Death in that it could be activated multiple times in a row.

As long as there was Sacred Energy, then one could resurrect.

There was no greater terror than watching someone you used painstaking sacrifices to kill revive again and again after dying.

Thus, as long as there was Sacred Energy, Ferrex would never be able to reunite with his fallen comrades.

Shaking himself back to the present, Ferrex tried to order his thoughts to gain a better understanding of his current situation. It was slight delay in the time of his dead and revival so about 5 seconds should have passed since his death.

With no time to marvel at this miraculous revival, Ferrex scanned the battlefield and saw Reta engaging the demonic spirit in a high speed melee. Godou seemed to be watching from the sidelines, watching carefully for an opening to join in.

It didn't seem like she need any assistance but in such a fierce fight help of any kind would be welcomed. Probably…

Deciding that Reta would be fine if he left her for her own devices for a few more seconds, Ferrex gathered up the Sacred Energy around him to cast the first specialised spell in a long time.

"O heavenly messenger come hither and deliver this plead to the great goddess…. O one who governs all knowledge, thou faithful servant seeks thou guidance.

I call upon thee, mighty one that rules over the souls of the fallen, grace your servant with the oracle of thou wisdom and allow me to see the truth of the world. Heaven's Calling: True Sight!"

**1000 Resurrection Energy has been converted to Soul Power****1000 **

**Soul Power has been consumed.**

**Heaven's Calling: True Sight has successfully activated. You can now see the hidden truths in the world.**

**Insight has increased by 2000**

**You can now see all hidden traps. **

**You can see the flow of energy in the world.**

**Detailed information on most things you see is now visible.**

**Increased chance of understanding the structure of most magics and magical objects on sight.**

Ding!

**Mana Structure Comprehension has activated.**

**A new spell has been learnt: Sacred Barrier Field (7 Circle Magic)**

Unintentionally he seemed to have learnt a new spell.

The spell he had just casted, Heaven's Calling: True Sight, was a spell that increased his perception and ability to understand things.

Ferrex directed his sight to the demonic spirit trying to find its weakness. Rather than rushing in blindly into the fray, it seemed more logical to watch from watch from an opening from afar. Ferrex deduced that with his current physical abilities he more hindrance than help in a melee battle.

If he joined in he would just end up attracting the demon's attention and get killed again. Since his slowing curse had no effect on it, it was likely that the rest of his curses would have no effect on it. So should he cast buffs instead? That would probably work. If Reta was evenly matched with the demonic spirit right now then she should be able beat it if I with a simple war priest buff.

Ferrex turned his sight on to Reta and realised the problem with that line of thought... Casting holy magic on Reta would be detrimental… So I guess that leaves Godou...

Godou let out as sight of relief as he saw Ferrex get up after being struck. Although he could have sworn that the demonic spirit had struck a fatal wound, Ferrex seemed perfectly fine. Maybe game logic was just different.

Reta was fighting with the demonic spirit nearby. After it had attacked Flay and Ferrex, Reta had rushed at it and engaged it in hand to hand combat. At some point in time before this, she had re-equipped her battle armour. Additionally, she had equipped a creepy-looking grey skull shaped mask which covered her entire face. Two circles of red light shone out under the mask were her eyes should have been giving the impression that she was a monster rather than a player.

Even to an amateur like Godou, it was clear the Reta was proficient in real martial arts. She still had a long way to go when compared with a genius like Godou's sworn elder sister who was called the Ruler of the Martial Realm or even her prodigal disciple, but from a normal person's perspective, she was quite strong.

In terms of level, the demon was obviously stronger than her but gradually, Reta started getting used to the movements of the demonic spirit. She started dodge its attacks by a paper thin margin and launching counter punches in the same moment. However, just as Reta was adapting to the demon, the demon was also adapting to Reta's movements. Thus the fight so far had been a stalemate with neither able to land a clean hit.

As he watched this, Godou could do nothing but curse at his own uselessness. No doubt he would be more hindrance than help if he tried to join Reta. After all, what could a low level player like him do in this situation?

Godou hear the sounds of leaves being crushed underfoot behind him and flinched, expecting to see another demonic spirit appearing. He relaxed when he realised that it was just Ferrex who had just made his way to join him.

Godou noticed that Ferrex hadn't been casting any spells after he had been hit. Was he waiting for a opening to strike at as well? Or was his injury actually more serious than it seemed?

A sign of worry must have shown on his face because Ferrex gave him a wry smile and said:

"Don't worry, it will take more than that to take me down."

Then he used the party chat function to allow Reta to listen to the conversation and added:

"I have a plan."

"Which is?"

Since Reta seemed too preoccupied with the fight to contribute to the conversation, Godou asked in her stead.

"Well it's not really a plan but a corporative attack between all surviving party members. Looking at it now I have realised something about the demonic spirits and I think we can take it down. The keystone of this plan will be you, Reta. What I am about to say next may shock you but you can ask me all the questions you want after we defeat the demon."

"As the demonic spirit gets damaged it automatically regenerates itself using the Sacred Energy around it. This creates the illusion that these demons are undefeatable. However this is not the case right now isn't it? I can see the health of the demon. All of the wounds you have inflicted on it have not healed, Reta this is because of the class attributes of a Phantom Slayer right?"

"However the troubling thing is that as you are now you are unable to defeat the demon yourself because all your active skills have been temporarily disabled due to some prior event. You also have negative magic resistance so that even holy magic will damage you. Furthermore, the demon also has more health and better defences than you so we will lose at this rate."

"…H H How did- ?!"

"Questions come later! Concentrate one your fight! My plan comes in three simple steps. First, Godou will distract the demonic spirit so that Reta and back away from it. Then I will use powerful spell to weaken it. Afterwards it's up to you Reta to finish off before it can completely regenerate."

Wait so Reta was fighting the demonic spirit evenly without using any skills this whole time? Godou had thought that she had been activating them mentally, a trick he had discovered whilst fighting the kobold scouts. Then again, he also remembered Ferrex saying something about how mute people could activate skills.

Moreover, Godou saw a huge hole in that plan.

"Hang on a sec! How am I supposed to distract that thing? I don't have any attacks that can scratch it, much less distract it."

"That's why I'm going to buff you with a specialised holy spell."

Godou still wanted to ask more questions but stopped as Ferrex began chanting.

"O heavenly messenger come hither and deliver this plead to the great goddess…. O one who governs all knowledge, thou faithful servant seeks thou protection.

I call upon thee, mighty one that rules over the souls of the fallen, grace your servant with the blessing of thou might.

Bestow upon this righteous soul an indomitable spirit to fight as your champion. Heaven's Calling: Divine Blessing!"

**Heaven's Calling: Divine Blessing has been applied.**

**Movement speed has increased by 50%. Your body feels lighter and footsteps make no sound.**

**You have been surrounded by a holy aura. Damage from holy and dark attributed attacks has been halved. **

**+ 70 to all stats.**

**Health regeneration has increased by a further 50%**

**Mana regeneration has increased by a further 50%**

**Stamina regeneration has increased by a further 50%**

**Duration: 2 hours**

"There, that should more or less make up for a difference of 100 or so levels. Combined with the buff from the Temple of Lou you should be able handle it now right?"

"Y Yeah."

"So are we going to go with my plan?"

"This is a do or die situation! I'll in!"

"I'm fine with it."

"Okay I'm going to start now. When I say the word "straight" initiate the plan!"

""Roger!""

Godou thought for a second on what Ferrex wanted him to do. He had called Reta to move away so this spell would probably have a large area of effect. Therefore to distract the demon, Godou needed to use a ranged attack. And the only ranged attack he would perform was that!

"Arms Commandment! I call upon all the mana here…"

Without further ado, Ferrex started chanting. A blazing red aura cloaked around him as the wind began to stir.

"Let this bright light burn straight… towards the enemy…"

Now! With no time to verbally activate his skill Godou created a mana spear to throw that the demon.

BUZZ!

**You have successfully created a mana weapon.**

**Your mana weapon has absorbed the holy aura around you.**

**Mana weapon has been converted to Holy Magic Weapon.**

**The following information is available due to the completion of the basic education:**

**Holy Magic Weapons are elemental weapons sustained through magic and inflict both physical and magical damage.**

**Holy Magic Weapons are able to bypass physical and magical defences.**

**Holy Magic Weapons will deal critical damage on the forces of darkness.**

Barely registering the discovery of a new application for his skill, Godou threw the spear with all his might at the demonic spirit. When he had still played baseball he had been reputed as catcher with a strong throw. Thus, Godou had confidence with the speed and accuracy of his pickoffs!

"…and become the strike of fury… "

The demonic spirit sensed danger incoming from the spear and flinched. In that moment, Reta swiftly backed away.

"Mana Burn!"

A beam of light erupted from Ferrex and hurtled towards the demon in this split second.

There was an explosion from where the demonic spirit was standing. A dust cloud covered the area as a result of it and Godou lost sight of the others.

"Be careful! That still wasn't enough!"

"Ionising powers! Please grant me the power to make things right and defeat the enemy. Grant thy servant the strength to reclaim the light for I fear neither the sacrifice nor the counsel against me! Noble Sacrifice!"

A second beam of light flashed, clearing away the dust in the air. Godou heard the demonic sprit howl in pain. He saw Reta charging at it, a blur of grey. It noticed her and raised its hand to strike. On impulse, Godou created another spear and threw it at the demon.

The spear didn't make it in time due to the extreme speed of the two combatants and the demon managed to strike a glancing blow on Reta's side. However, it managed distract the demon when it hit, allowing Reta to land a clean blow.

A stream of darkness burst from the demon, bursting into the depths of forest leaving behind the corpse of a slain paladin of Freya which collapsed with a puppet that had its strings cut.

"So all that still wasn't enough to kill it… well, no matter, it's too damaged to be able to fight again."

Godou turned around to see Ferrex standing behind him. They regrouped with Reta and the trio sat down to rest in a secluded location to recover from their fight and restore their hunger saturation levels. Compared to other parties, they only had one casualty, Flay, which seemed pretty good. However, in exchange, Reta was down to about 40% of her health while Ferrex and Godou were relatively fine.

As they sat and rested, Godou and Reta started to interrogate Ferrex.

"You seem pretty calm. Ferrex can you make sense of what's going on here?"

"How is it possible that you are still here? Noble sacrifice is a holy spell that turns all of the caster's Health and Mana into damage and is only available to priests past their class second advancement! But if you're a priest then why can you use Mana Burn? Who are you? What are you?"

"Woah Woah Woah slow down… I can't answer you all at once"

"Okay I think the most important question right now is this: What's going on?"

"I'm not sure of the details myself but I think we are in the process of being slaughtered by a Divine Saint to gather Sacred Energy. This place is flooded with Resurrection energy so it's probably the Church of Embinyu."

Godou noted that Ferrex's tone was surprisingly calm despite the weight of what he had just said.

"Sorry… Divine what?"

"A Divine Saint. Divine Saints and Divine Saint knights are the most powerful members of churches. They are the only members of the church that can directly channel power out of their respective Gods. It wouldn't be farfetched to say that they are the proxies of the gods themselves.

Divine Saints are given the additional ability to learn any type of magic and are one of the few who can utilise Sacred Energy of faith.

On the other hand, Divine Saint knights have the additional ability of Divine Possession which bestows upon them the additional abilities often based on powerful creatures worshiped by their church."

"What do you mean by Sacred Energy?"

"It's a special type of energy that can be consumed to cast spells and do other things like mana. However, its different from mana in that it has no upper limit. Resurrection Energy, Soul Power, Spiritual Flow, Blessings of Life… these are all categories of Sacred Energy. Each Church has their own type of Sacred Energy and their own way of obtaining it. Resurrection Energy, which is obtained by taking another's life is what Seirph is currently using.

Most likely he intends to kill us all and use us as sacrifices to gather more resurrection energy. The amount of Resurrection Energy he currently has is… overwhelming and yet he is still trying to get more. I shudder to think of what he intends to do with it all."

"If these Divine Saints and Saint Knights are so powerful how come this is the first time I'm hearing about it? Surely news of such a strong class should have spread by now?"

"I don't remember reading about them in the church either."

"While the knowledge on the Divine Saint variants are not a secret, their existence and identities of them are kept well hidden inside the church, often only told to the current High priest and their most inner council by the preceding High priest. Also, there can only one Divine Saint and Divine Saint Knight for each religion at any one time.

More often than not they will not be a member of the church but some farmer on the other side of the continent. They could even be someone on the enemy's side. It's not a power you can earn through hard work you see. It's something you are born with.

To most other members, they are nothing other than a myth and their active roles in battles passed off as miracles from the gods. Such is the power of the Divine class that their very existence on the battlefield changes the outcome of the battle.

You see, there is a race going on involving all the churches of all religions. A race to discover and awaken their Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights. When a church manages to find and awaken both their Divine Saint and Divine Saint Knight, it is said to be a sign of the coming of a new era. The churches order squadrons of paladins and priests to search villages, towns and even kingdoms to look for people with potential. But most of them believe that their just searching for new talented recruits but what their actually doing is searching for potential Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights."

"But why are they hidden?"

"If the existence of them were made public then they would gain public support. Of course they act as a special unit in the church and follow only the orders of the high priest but some ignorant members of the church may be it as an excuse to start rumours of a power struggle between the Divine Saint and the High priest. This would sow the seeds of confusion and disorganisation inside the church ultimately destroying it. Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights are well aware of this and have to agree to staying out of the spotlight to awaken their powers. Usually, they are given a place in the middle or low rankings of the church to avoid suspicion.

Also, if by some freak accident occurs and a Divine Saint or Divine Saint Knight is killed then their church will suffer a great loss in strength and morale. Just having one of them awakened increases the effectiveness of the specialised spells of the church you see. This leads them vulnerable to being destroyed or absorbed by the worshippers of other gods. This is to protect the potential assassins from being destroyed by their would-be targets as well.

The only thing that could defeat or restrain a Divine Saint is other Divine Saint or a Divine Saint Knight. This is the one rule must be obeyed in this world. Well according to legends there are some other abnormal existences like the Dragon Kings, Spirit Kings, Magic Kings, Abyssal Lord, Overlords and Elemental lords who are said to be able to stand on the same level as them but who's to say that they actually exist. Short of that you would need a massive army and even then you might not win."

"Okay but who are you Ferrex? Why do you know all this? Ordinarily I wouldn't have asked but in this situation I think I have a right to know."

Ferrex appeared hesitant but making a determined expression he said:

"I am a member of a lost religion that was destroyed by the Divine Saint Knight of Beelzebub…"

"Ah…"

"And I was… I am their Divine Saint."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

Slowly the boy changed under the rehabilitation efforts of the Church of Freya.

At first he seemed to have suffered a mental trauma and was prone to falling into bouts of depression due to his failure and guilt over being the only survivor.

Gradually as the years passed, he recovered. His emotionless mask became a rarer and rare sight as time went on.

Gradually as the years passed, he began to show more and more outward emotions. Not all of these were his true feelings though.

The boy still showed a deeply ingrained distrust for strangers. He had developed a knack to spotting and underlying motives of the people trying to get close to him.

Those who tried to approach him for his power were blocked by a wall of forced politeness while only those who had succeeded in befriending him were told his true thoughts.

The one person who succeeded was the Divine Saint serving the Goddess Freya. Another one was an adventurer sent by the Holy Seer.

Now, many years after the destruction of his Church, those close to the boy were in danger once again.

This time he would not allow himself to fail.

He would protect them with all his power.

Because they were his friends and comrades…

"It was only because of my abilities as a Divine Saint that I was able to survive the massacre of my church. If word gets out that someone from the church that was supposedly wiped out survived then assassins may after me to finish the job. I don't mean regular assassins either. I may have to end up fighting that Divine Saint Knight again..."

"So that's why you don't use specialised spells… meh… whatever"

"Well that aside, you also said that only a Divine Saint could match a Divine Saint so doesn't this mean that you can stop... what was his name… Seirph?"

"Wait… you're just going to accept it like that? You're not angry with me for hiding it?"

"Yeah I am but now is not the time to get angry. It's your business as well so I have no right to dig any deeper into it."

"Divine Saint… whatever… After all the things we've been through I don't think hiding that is such a big deal, I mean, you had your reasons. Also as long as we keep our mouths shut the other churches won't know about your return right?"

"No it's not as simple as that. The other churches are bound to have seers watching the flow of holy power so at least one of them will have noticed the large abnormalities in the flow caused by my Heaven's Calling spells. That being said there's still a chance that they might mistake it for Seirph but since I've already used them I might as well go all out."

Ferrex gave the negative response but nevertheless, Godou could see that a heavy load seemed to have lifted from his shoulders.

"So different Divine Saints require different types of Sacred Energy to use their powers and this current area is filled with a Sacred Energy called Resurrection Energy right?"

"Yeah that's about right."

Godou felt impressed by Reta's ability to ask a question loaded with terms which she had only heard a few minutes ago so quickly. Ferrex seemed similarly impressed but replied back seriously.

"So how are you using your powers as a Divine Saint? Can you manipulate Resurrection Energy as well for some reason? It just doesn't add up."

"The Sacred Power of my Church is called Soul Power. It has the special property of being able to be obtained from other types of Sacred Power. To put it simply, I converted Resurrection Energy into Soul Power and used it to fuel my own spells."

"So you can basically steal his Sacred Energy?"

"Yeah. This property of Soul Power is one of the main reasons why my Church was targeted to be wiped out. Sacred Energy with this type of property is exceedingly rare. The only other type of Sacred Energy I can remember off the top of my head that can do the same thing is the one which belongs to the Church serving the god of flames and trickery."

A god with the attributes of flames and trickery. Godou felt this term resonate within the cords of his memory. Wasn't there a god with such attributes in reality's mythology?

That scene suddenly sprang vivid in Godou's mind, a handsome youth banishing a golden sword, fighting desperately to sever the blue flames coming from a certain tome affiliated with the powers of a god with such characteristics.

Godou shook his head to bring himself back into the present. During that time he had been in a crisis as well, however, there was no way that something as convenient as that tome would suddenly appear now.

Meanwhile, Reta continued their interrogation.

"Are you able to full convert Seirph's whole store of Resurrection Energy? Without any Sacred Energy he would be helpless wouldn't he?"

"I am converting Resurrection Energy to Soul Power has we speak. However, I don't think you can raise your hopes on something like that. My conversion method is imperfect so the Soul Power will revert back into Resurrection Energy if I leave it alone for too long. Also, keep in mind that without Sacred Energy, a Divine Saint is still a first rate mage who can heal. That being said a first rate mage can still single-handedly destroy an army if they wanted to. He probably has some skill in physical techniques as well."

"But he would still be weakened wouldn't he?"

"Yes he would be weakened but not helpless. Speaking of which, Reta do you have any high magic resistance armour?"

"Why?"

"I can try to dispel the skill lockdown that's currently imposed on you."

"Okay let's try it then."

Meanwhile in the centre of the plateau where the battle began, a shining multi-winged figure hovered lightly over a devastated battlefield. The ground was littered with bloodstains, broken equipment and small craters. This figure was of course, Seirph.

Around him were the scattered corpses of both knights and their war horses.

The mighty Knights of Kallamore had fallen.

"…You monster…"

"I am not a monster… but a bringer of miracles."

A voice spoke out of the darkness. Seirph quickly located the source and replied coolly. One of the knights had staggered back to their feet. Unsteady and trembling but nevertheless, emitting a strong aura of fighting spirit.

The knight managed to capture a stray horse, quickly mounting and charging straight at him. Barely batting an eyelid, Seirph imagined a trench of angled spikes of rock appearing in front of the horse.

"Earth Spike"

The horse came to a sudden stop as it rammed straight into the spikes, impaling itself. The knight was thrown off it from the momentum of the charge. Adapting quickly, the knight swung his sword forward as he flew towards Seirph.

Seirph simply held up his hand up in front of the airborne knight, imagining a bolt of compressed air exploding from his palm.

"Air bullet"

With a jolt the knight was blown backwards violently, smashing to the ground a considerable distance away. He landed and tumbled roughly on the ground coming to a stop about 12 metres away where he stood up no more.

**You have killed a Captain of the Kallamore Knights. **

**Resurrection Energy has increased by 723.**

Seirph scanned the remaining combatants on the plateau, killing all the survivors he found. Men, horses, he killed them all. Then, finding no more, he quietly suppressed the power of Heaven's Calling: Ascension of Embinyu.

The 10 glowing wings on his back decreased to 2 and a shining halo appeared on his head instead.

In this form, the power of Ascension of Embinyu was weakened but the consumption of Resurrection Energy was also greatly reduced. Because of the high cost of Resurrection Energy, Seirph preferred not to release the full power of Ascension of Embinyu for too long as he wouldn't gain enough profit in Resurrection Energy from his sacrifices.

As he did so, Seirph extended his web of holy sensing to encompass the entirety of the area covered by his large field barrier.

Of the 3000 strong army about 2500 remained alive. This army was really foolish to actually walk into his trap. Seirph had noticed that they had suspected him right from the beginning. There was no way that they wouldn't. But yet they still followed him.

They probably thought that I was about to lead them into an ambush from another army or something. How foolish!

Now, all of the survivors were now scattered across the surrounding areas still fighting the demonic spirits or resting. Sooner or later they would end up being completely wiped out by the demonic spirit but simply waiting for that to happen would take too long so Seirph decided against choosing that method. Besides, it seemed that there were some interesting fighters in the army who managed to take down the demonic spirits themselves.

Extending his holy sensing further, Seirph felt a strange sensation from something that resonated with his Divinity. It was almost as if there was another type of Sacred Energy present. Immediately, he recalled one of the Freya supporters that had warned him about the monster army. Was he the cause of this?

Seirph flew to the group of fighters closest to him. Ironically, this group was fighting in a large field right next to the Lost Temple of Lou.

He landed behind them and killed them all with a single blast of magic. then he extended his holy sensing again to find the next group and to do the same thing but then stopped.

It would be a real pain to hunt them all down when they were all so scattered so why don't I just bring everybody back here then.

Seirph flew up high, releasing all 10 of his wings out again. He envisioned a raging sphere of gravity being summoned which dragged everything he targeted with his holy sensing back to his current location.

"Gravity Bind!"

Without further ado, an intense storm of gravity was created. The remaining defenders of Kallamore as well as the corpses of the Kallamore Knights and demonic spirits were sucked away and unceremoniously dropped onto the new battlefield.

Part 2

"Eh?"

"What?"

"Holy Shit!"

Various exclamations and curses of surprise were made as the fighters suddenly found themselves thrown in mid-air. Many of them landed with a heavy thud taking major fall damage. Quite a few people died from the fall itself.

Godou landed lightly on the ground. It seemed that the buff Ferrex gave him was still protecting him. He saw that Reta and Ferrex managed to land without any problems either and quickly moved to regroup with them, his movement speed buff taking him by surprise. He was going to have to take note of that.

The trio found a secluded corner of the battlefield to find out the gist of what was happening.

It seemed like everyone fighting, both humans and demons, had been dragged back to this location. They could see an angel-like figure, Seirph, flying across the battlefield, completely annihilating every party he ran across, giving off the image of a messenger of god coming to deal Divine Retribution.

"Woah… Heaven's Calling: Ascension of Embinyu, what an absurd level of power. These stats and abilities are of the chart!"

"What? Are you saying that you can see Seirph's stats or something?"

"Speaking of which you complete saw through my deficiencies during the fight with the demon. How did you do it?"

Ferrex's sudden exclamation brought forth many questions which he anwsered honestly.

"I used a Divine Saint spell on myself called Heaven's Calling: True Sight to increases my perception… In my current state I'm pretty much something one step short of being completely omniscient."

What a convenient ability. Now that he thought about it, Godou realised that such an ability could be dangerous in many ways. From what he understand, wasn't that ability something along the lines of being able to consecutively obtain spirit vision oracles with no risk?

"That's strange… Seirph's holy spells are obviously structured by magic circles but these elemental spells seem different… rather constructing a predetermined circle it's almost as if he's creating them… This is ancient magic? No he isn't creating them at all… turning your imagination into direcly reality… this is something that precedes even ancient magic… "

Seeing the Godou's questioning look, Ferrex elaborated even further.

"Magic is the act of structuring mana into circles to produce phenomena. Modern day magic spells are the product of many hundreds of years' worth of research based on more ancient magic. However, the ancient magic originally used by the mortal races was and still is, just a mere imitation the Divine Powers of Gods. Instead of creating any magic circles at all, Seirph is just imagining what he wants to happen and letting his power rewrite the world to his whims… that's the feeling I'm getting."

Morale had fallen again when the army spotted the corpses of the Kallamore Knights. Hopelessness was written on all the soldier's faces as they fought against the demonic spirits and the angel winged Seirph.

However, rallying calls were being made in several different places by higher level players to counteract the drop in morale. Godou could also see that many high level players were starting to team up with each other to organise a counter attack.

This sort of situation was beyond the point where he could try and talk his way out of it…

Watching this chaotic situation, Ferrex suddenly said:

"Godou, please run away and hide until everything settles down. You could get killed very easily as it is right now."

"No, I'm not going to let you face off against that monster alone. I'm coming with you."

And understandable proposal but Godou found himself refusing it. He was never one to abandon his friends in the first place but there were other reasons as well.

"Kyaa… I'm witnessing the makings of a great bromance… it's like one of those mangas where main character heads off to battle proclaiming "Don't worry I will protect you" to the heroine… fufufu I really wonder where this will lead to… "

"Please don't have such strange misunderstandings, I even if I run I'll get stuck at the barrier and a doubt hiding will help for long. The only way to get out is to take down Seirph isn't it? Besides, I'm not one to just abandon my friends. Reta you should go and fight with the other high level players. As it is, staying in parties with varying levels will only hinder your abilities. Go! We will try to come up with something."

Godou answered Reta's slightly forced comment with a serious suggestion. He had noticed that the disorganised formation of players was hindering any change of a counterattack. It would probably be best if Reta teamed up with other high level players then wouldn't it?

The soldiers in the Kallamore army were faring slightly better because their commanders were able to regain control. However, the majority of players were not part of the army and had joined as mercenaries who have no real chain of command in-between them.

"Ha ha ha I see you're keen on having your alone time even in a situation like this... Well, this current formation of parties is weaker against stronger opponents. If we stay as we are then we're going to be as screwed as the humans in 2012 when the aliens come to invade… kay I'm going… see ya~"

**Reta has left the party**

While Reta left leaving behind words which screamed for a tsukimoni, Godou noticed that her eccentricity was a good trait in this situation. Being able to crack jokes like that in this situation helped calm down your allies.

As soon as Reta left, Ferrex dropped his façade of freighted calmness and immediately fell into despair

"Damn it! I can think of about 9 different plans of how to get out of this and the success probability of them all is below 1%."

"Tell me the details."

This was the first time Godou had seem Ferrex with such a stressed expression.

"There too many things to consider! Too many lives! Too many things to worry about! If any more of these soldiers die then this section of Kallamore has basically fallen. Tellap and Naidiriv will be in a crisis when so many of their soldiers have died. Foreigners may come back to life but we natives are not so fortunate. They are frontier towns after all and get dragged into small skirmishes as often as major wars. There's also a river around here was well so any large attack will have to be carefully aimed it doesn't redirect the river and flood the towns. Not to mention there the Temple of Lou around as well… Simply scratching it would likely incur the divine retribution of Lou. The build itself is a Divine Gem so a Disaster will occur if it gets damaged. This is also an area of intersecting ley lines so I also have to be careful not to accidentally damage them as well which could change the environment around here and disrupt the lives of local wildlife and farmers. The mountain we are currently on should be Mt Revils so-"

"Although I understand that you want to account for everything but I think those types of goals are too idealistic. Stop worrying about the little details. When things are as desperate as they are now taking down Seirph should have the highest priority!"

Godou winced slightly as he said this. Wasn't it because he had this sort of philosophy that all his fights ended up including so much destruction? As opposed to, Ferrex's careful consideration every single cause and effect, his mentality seemed crude. However, if you're stuck in a situation where damage in necessary, then you might as well go all out.

"To create a plan I need to resolve myself to accept the sacrifices needed to bring about the results. I am the one who feels the weight of my decision the most."

"Take a few breaths to calm down and review the situation. You won't be able to think of anything if you stay as you are now. I think I can understand what you are getting at but the tides of battle change really quickly. If you can't think of a flawless plan where everyone ends up happy then go for the next best thing! If you can't eat curry then just settle for curry rice instead!"

Godou had added the last bit as a joke to help keep Ferrex from brooding. When under pressure it was better to make a brave face and act normally rather than let your anxiety show.

When on the losing side of a sport's match, a good playmaker should continue to appear as always to show that they haven't given up. This keeps the morale of the team up and hopefully stops their condition from deteriorating any faster. Though, this current situation was many times more dire than a simple sport's match…

"Well, I guess the biggest problem is that I don't know what part of the Heaven's Calling Seirph has."

"Heaven's Calling?"

"The Heaven's Calling is a series of powerful holy spells can only be learnt be the Divine Saint of a religion. However the only Heaven's Calling spell a Divine Saint can learn are the ones related to their Church."

"Powerful? How Powerful?"

"That buff I gave you is part of my Heaven's Calling series. Because I serve the war goddess of wisdom I am also to attain my current state of clairvoyance."

"A war goddess of wisdom… Athena… Can you also do something ridiculous like revive from the dead or something?"

Ferrex's changed after he heard Godou's absentminded murmuring.

"As a matter of fact, I can actually… I'm surprised that you could deduce both that ability and the name my religion by just hearing their attributes…"

Wait, so Athena exists in this world as well? Speaking of which, wasn't Freya the name of a goddess in reality as well? It seemed like this game had absorbed and adapted the mythology of reality to create this sort of fantasy setting.

Seeing that Ferrex was still staring at him for an explanation Godou hastily elaborated:

"Well it was just a lucky guess… When you mentioned your god as a war deity I immediately thought of steel and death which linked to immortality or invulnerability. During your incantations earlier you were saying something about the souls of the fallen or something as well. From that I thought maybe resurrection is possible…"

"That's an interesting way of looking at things"

Yeah… when you start fighting gods for a while you start developing a habit of trying to predict their abilities from their attributes…

Godou didn't verbally say the last bit, instead he voiced a worry that had just occurred to him.

"I remember Seirph also saying something about life and death during his incantations as well… do you know what sort of church he comes from?"

"The church of Embinyu… It's a church that's been out of the radar for the past few decades. I don't remember much information about them… Embinyu… life… death… I think they're also known as the Resurrection Church… Wait! Resurrection!"

Having just reached the same conclusion, Godou could see that Ferrex was on the verge of falling back into despair.

"If Seirph also has the ability to revive from the death then what are we supposed to do? This is hopeless… Damn it! Am I going to fail again? Why do I always end up running into these crazy powerful psychopaths?"

The looked over at Seirph who was floating lightly above the ground, completely unfazed in the face of several coordinated attacks from many high level users.

Trying his best to prevent Ferrex from falling to another bout of depression, Godou tried to iron out the details of what sort of firepower they current had.

"Ferrex, tell me what kind of things can your Heaven's Calling spells do? I know it may seem bleak but there's no way that he doesn't have a weakness. I've been observing him for a while now and form what I can see he seems very fixated on aiming for the leaders of each group. But at the same time he lets them arouse the spirits of their subordinates before killing them off"

"If the leader falls straight after making a rallying call then morale will drop down lower than when it as before the rally was made. When morale is low the army becomes a weaker then they originally are. This allows him to slaughter us in a quick and efficient manner… But why is he so fixated on doing this quickly?"

"He's overconfident. Maybe that angel form of his has a time limit or something. Either way, a battle of attrition goes against him doesn't it?"

"Now that you mention it, it seems like Seirph is currently suppressing his powers right now. Maybe that angel form has a high consumption rate… then again, I doubt he is just going to let us just drag it out until he runs out."

"This at least provides my point that he's not completely invincible. Let's see if we can iron out a plan of some sort."

"Okay… I'm with you. I will tell you my Heaven's Calling series…"

The army seemed to have regrouped and reorganised themselves but the end result was the same.

Projectiles that were directed at Seirph were stopped as if they hit an invisible barrier and dropped harmless to the ground. Spells shot hit him were deflected from their original targets, occasionally reflecting back and hitting their own caster. Melee strikes from swords, daggers and axes were similarly blocked.

Occasionally, some attacks bypassed the barrier but these were casually batted away by one of the many golden angel wings on Seirph's back before they could do any harm.

The fighters despaired but did not give up. The defeat of the Kallamore Knights had affected their morale badly and this caused stat debuffs on them all.

They surrounded him only to find themselves impaled by multiple earth spikes, pierced by holy Lances or struck down from behind by a demonic spirit.

It was like pitting a group of stone-age savages against a military tank. Despite their advantage of numbers, the basic difference in strength as too much. As more of the fighters died, Seirph store of Resurrection Energy slowly increased.

Suddenly, a rallying call was made. Seirph noted that the one who made it was wearing higher level gear then the rest, probably one of the leaders then.

While that rallying call was made, a squad of high agility type fighters tried to ambush him from behind.

It was no use though. He had already seen through their movements already with his holy sensing.

He turned around and unleashed a bolt of magic at the leader, a thin, grey, masked figure.

However, just as the spell was about to hit the figure vanished and instantly reappeared in front of him. Teleportation? No it seemed like something different.

The figure tried to strike him directly with fist protectors but was blocked by his automatic magic defences. Disregarding all this, Seirph summoned up a nova of ice around him which struck and killed the figure as well as all the other fighters around him.

Afterwards, he moved on to the next group of fighters to kill.

"…So that's the plan. Can you think of any other holes?"

"Nope I think this this the best we can work with right now."

"Complex plans are best to be avoided when facing a Divine Saint. It's best to eliminate Seirph before he has a chance to show his abilities. That being said the success probability of this is probably 50%. That being said how can you be so sure that the army is going to act that way?"

"Watching and analysing people's actions has become a habit of mine. It's just what I think our commanders will do based on what I have seen them do so far."

"Well, I'll trust your judgement Godou. Now as we agreed…"

"Yeah I'll go a bit further back and act as a lookout..."

Part 3

Ferrex stood on the edge of the field on the side that was closest to the Lost Temple of Lou. There had been many plans that he had discussed with Godou. Many of them were discarded but some of them actually seemed plausible.

There were many factors that they had to consider when fighting Seirph.

First of all, the demonic spirits summoned in the beginning were really hindering any chance of a counter attack. If a normal party attacks them without a powerful priest or an anti-darkness class like Reta than these spirits would just rise back up again completely unharmed.

Then what should they do? Should they go and help the other parties?

No, that would not be a wise choice. Fighting the demonic spirit with their party itself was hard enough. It was unimaginable how hard it would be to coordinate a group of strangers.

But then Ferrex had another option of fighting available to him. He had considered recalling the souls of the fallen and have them fight the demonic spirits as summons. Ultimately he had decided against it because his conversion rate of resurrection energy to soul power isn't fast enough to sustain that many souls for more than a few seconds.

The main problem was that there was just too much Resurrection Energy around.

Scared energy was needed to fuel most of the spells of Divine Saints. The Demonic spirits were also sustained by the oppressive amount of Resurrection energy in the area. Therefore, it was logical to assume that once there was no resurrection energy in the area Seirph was powerless.

This of course was incorrect. Ferrex had once made that mistake a long time ago when facing a Divine Saint Knight. That mistake had cost him his sense of identity and left him with a lifetime of regret. He would not make it again. Although he could not change the past, he would not let it tarnish his future either.

Whether powered by Sacred Energy or not, Divine Saints and Saint Knights should not be underestimated. They were dangerous. He had to strike Seirph down before he could do anything else.

To put in simply, Seirph was too dangerous no matter now weakened he was. Therefore, depending on some grand complex strategy was impossible. However, since the times of ancient warfare there was always one strategy that had a high chance of success against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. Use brute strength to smash them at their weakest!

The plan the two of them had come up with was one which covered most of these factors.

- Start now!

At the same time Ferrex heard Godou's whisper, he saw the frontline fighters of the army retreat as the mages started to unleash a powerful spell that they had been chanting 5 minutes previously, just as predicted.

Strengthening his resolve, Ferrex knew it was time to pull out his final thump card. The strongest spell in his Heaven's Calling arsenal. Since this spellwas so powerful, there was a high chance of it backfiring on him so Ferrex had casted an enchantment on himself as a precaution.

"O heavenly messenger, come hither and deliver this plead to the great goddess…. O one who governs all knowledge, thou faithful servant seeks your guidance."

In exchange for consuming all the Soul Power in the area…

"I call upon thee, mighty one who rules over the souls of the fallen, grant your servant the power to vanquish the calamity that has broken the balance of the world."

…this spell delivered an attack so powerful that the entire mountain range could be destroyed if he didn't actively focus on limiting its power…

"I beg of you, for I am thy vassal, eternally stoic and ready."

This was an attack that was both unblockable…

"I beg of you, for I am thy medium, a subject of thou wisdom and strategic might."

… and unavoidable.

"I beg of you, for I am the symbol of Athene! May you be worshiped by your followers and may the pagans tremble before your name!"

This is my thump card.

"Blasphemers! Behold the might of my power! And regret for all that awaits you is the darkness of the abyss!"

The strongest spell of the Divine Saint of Athene!

"O omniscient one who holds defines the art of strategy and guides the souls of the fallen, answer my calls and deliver a calamity to obliterate the enemy and right the wrongs of this world! Heaven's Calling…"

Ironically, it was only because of the preparation that Seirph had gone through that had made it possible for Ferrex to use this spell.

"Doomsday of Athene!"

Nothing happened for a moment. The battle raged on unchanged. Seirph walked through the mages' bombardment completely unscratched. and then-

SHATTER!

With the sound of breaking glass the barrier around the army broke. The wind roared loudly and buffered everyone on the battlefield.

All the combatants looked up and saw…

A glowing meteor falling forcefully from the heavens.

The meteor itself was about 5 metres wide and must have weighted several tons.

And it was aimed directly at Seirph.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

At a velocity so high that almost nobody could react, the meteor smashed into the ground. Just before it hit, Ferrex caught a glimpse of Seirph releasing all 10 angel wings in an attempt to stop the meteor with a barrier.

Seirph flew up to meet the meteor. A dense barrier of green light forming a sphere around him. The meteor collided with the barrier. The barrier cracked… and held.

Just as it seemed like Seirph had managed to withstand the spell, the meteor accelerated even faster for a spilt second.

Seirph was rammed into the ground, barrier and all. The impact of the meteor formed a 20 metre wide crater on the field. However, the spell didn't end there.

As soon as the meteor hit the ground, it exploded into a towering pillar of light, sending shockwaves of energy everywhere.

Miraculously, none of the fighters in the army were killed by the shockwaves. Despite the mass and velocity of the meteor, the crater formed from its impact stopped short of the army as well. This very fact could be considered a miracle brought forth by the gods… Or a demonstration of Ferrex's skill as a Divine Saint.

The pillar of light expanded rapidly for a split second, reaching the edges of the crater before dissipating quietly to reveal… nothing.

There was precisely nothing there to reveal anymore. The meteor had vanished. Seirph was nowhere to be seen. All that remained was a crater-sized bottomless hole.

**Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10547.**

Ferrex took note of the sudden drop in Resurrection Energy. This was far from good news. The only combatants on this battlefield who could use Sacred Power were the two Divine Saints. As feared, Seirph was still able to resurrect himself after dying.

However, this still wasn't the end of Ferrex's spell.

Chaos erupted in the army as they spotted another meteor falling from the sky.

It crashed into roughly the same place as the first meteor creating another crater from its impact.

**Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10496.**

It too then exploded into a pillar of light.

**Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10634.**

Then another meteor fell…

**Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10231.**

And exploded.

**Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10535.**

And another.

**Resurrection Energy has decreased by 10712.**

As the last meteor disappeared into a pillar of light, the bombardment of meteors stopped. And there was silence. Was this the end? Had that attack actually managed to finish off Seirph?

Ferrex felt that something was off but couldn't quiet put his finger on it. He hadn't noticed the remaining Resurrection Energy decrease anymore which meant that Seirph hadn't resurrected after taking that last hit from the meteor.

Everything had gone according to plan. Previously, Ferrex had only released all the meteors at the same time when he used Doomsday of Athene. However, Godou had proposed the idea of releasing them one at a time, something which Ferrex had never tried doing before.

Their final plan had been to reduce the amount of Resurrection Energy to the lowest possible amount, and then kill Seirph with meteors until he ran out of Resurrection Energy to revive. Since Doomsday of Athene consumed all the Soul Power Ferrex had, they didn't need to worry about the Soul Power converting back to Resurrection Energy.

At the time he cast the spell, Ferrex had managed to convert the majority of Resurrection Energy into Soul Power. In truth he had been worried about what to do after if Seirph could resurrect more times than he could kill him but Godou had just said that they could improvise something afterwards.

Ferrex had offered so much Soul Power that he could still launch another meteor if he wanted to but decided against it. He quickly ended the spell. As he had told Godou earlier, doing too much damage to this area was ultimately detrimental.

Alas, it was this decision that ultimately lead Ferrex to his downfall.

As he let his guard down, there was a slight tremor and several spikes of rock erupted from the ground. They scored a direct hit on Ferrex, knocking him a few metres away.

"Uh…Regen Commandment!"

Reflexively, Ferrex cast a healing spell on himself as he took the brunt of the attack. He tumbled to his feet as stared at his assailant in shock.

Emerging from a tunnel the ground, was Seirph. Dishevelled and covered in dirt, but otherwise fine.

Belatedly, he realised that he had not gained any experience from after "killing" Seirph. Tell-tale signs that he had failed. Ferrex wanted to curse himself for his negligence. He had already known how hard it was to kill a Divine Saint. There was no way that everything would just go according to plan.

"Gale Storm"

He no further time to think though as Seirph summoned up a tornado of wind and threw it at him. Ferrex found himself blown in the air, spinning at dizzily fast speeds. The only reason he had managed to survive was because he had high magic resistance due to his Divinity stat. However, at this rate he would be die soon.

The amount of remaining Sacred Energy left was meagre. His proficiency with his Heaven's Calling spells were not enough to allow him to resurrect with only that much. This meant that he would die a true death. No further revivals using that method.

The instant he came to that conclusion, the torrent of Ferrex's thoughts calmed down. Unnecessary thoughts that clogged up his thinking space were eliminated accelerating his thoughts. Focusing his mind, Ferrex circulated mana throughout his whole body.

**Circulated Mana Distribution has activated.**

**100 Mana is being consumed per second.**

**Damage from most magical and elemental attacks has been reduced by 50%**

This was a mage's technique that temporarily reduced the power of magical attacks directed at him. But for some reason, Circulated Mana distribution wasn't as effective as it should be against Seirph spells. Was it because Seirph as using a predecessor of Ancient Magic to cast spells?

**Mana Structure Comprehension has activated.**

**You have learnt a new skill: Mana Casting.**

It seemed that because his profession was one closely related to serving gods, being this close to the Lost Temple of Lou powered up his abilities. It had only taken two hits for him to figure out and learn Seirph's spell casting technique.

Still, he would probably only last about 9 more seconds against Seirph at this rate. Ferrex calmly noted that he couldn't rely on anyone else to save him this time. The army had retreated behind him to escape the falling meteors. They were now too far away to save him before he died.

That meant that the only option left to him was to fight back.

"Holy Lance!"

A series of golden lances were launched at Ferrex this time while he was still in mid-air from being blow by the tornado.

With no other option, Ferrex tried to use Seirph's technique of spell casting. Right now he didn't have the time to read how to use it properly from the skill window so he decided to learn it on the go.

Ferrex imagined a gust of wind blowing himself a few metres away so that he could dodge the incoming lances.

**Mana Casting has failed.**

**Mental visualisation was not strong enough.**

**A Verbal trigger is needed to cast spells.**

**Due to class bonuses there is no penalty.**

Since the skill failed, Ferrex found himself with no choice but to analyse the lances as they came towards him. With the power of his True Sight amplifying his ability to understand and seen through the structure of structured spells, he should be able to pull this off…

"Ultimate Heal!"

The moment the holy lances hit him he cast a powerful healing spell on himself which was amplified by the holy aura of the Holy Lances.

**Mana Structure Comprehension has activated**

**You have learnt a new spell: Holy Lance**.

With Ultimate Heal buying him a few more seconds to fight, Ferrex started to prepare himself mentally for a second attempt at Mana Casting.

Using your imagination to create effects on reality. Truthfully, Ferrex thought that structuring magic circles through formulae was a lot easier. Nevertheless, he persevered and visualised the effect of the spell that he wanted to cast.

Rather than doing direct damage, what he wanted was to weaken Seirph even further. Weaken his combat ability. Weaken his ability to cast spells. Ferrex kept a firm image of this ideal. Now, all that was left as a verbal trigger to active the "spell".

He thought for a split second to find an appropriate name which would match and strength his mental image, finally settling on:

"Imprison!"

And released the spell with a blinding flash of light… Just as he was stabbed through the chest with a spear of light.

Godou had been watching from a far when Ferrex had summoned his meteor shower. He had started running when Ferrex had for some reason stopped the spell. After killing a monster experience should be rewarded to the combatants against it. Although, Godou had not done much in terms of fighting Seirph, he was still in a party with Ferrex and should have gained some experience through that link.

However, since no such message had appeared, he had grown suspicious and started making his way to Ferrex as soon as he could. By the time he got close to him, it was already over.

Seirph used something that looked like wind type magic to fling away Ferrex's body into the midst of the army. A benevolent smile appearing on his face as if saying "this is what happens when you challenge me".

Morale fell as the army saw that not even an attack on the level of a meteor shower was able to take down Seirph. A paralysing atmosphere was suffocating all the fighters in the army.

Hurriedly, Godou made his way to where Ferrex had landed and found that he was still conscious. He made his way to Ferrex's side.

Godou opened his inventory rummaging through the contents. His inventory contained a range of things, food, a canteen of water, a short sword, a dagger, a shoulderplate… these stuff that had dropped from the kobolds; some smoke bombs, cheap scuptures and a few other pieces of junk Ferrex had given him before going on the trip. Finally, he found what he was looking for. Godou pulled out a bottle filled with red liquid. A health potion.

Ferrex looked at him with glazed eyes before coughing out blood and saying:

"Guh… Don't bother… I've past the point where a potion can heal me… looks like I failed…"

Despite his protests, Godou forced him to drink the potion away but it didn't seem to have any affect.

"Godou… I have something to ask of you… Please… survive…"

Ding!

**The Request of the Divine Saint of Athene**  
**As your friend, Ferrex has request that you somehow manage to survive the massacre of the Divine Saint of Embinyu. **

**Difficulty: Unknown**

**Restrictions:**  
**Close relationship with Ferrex**

**Rewards:**  
**Unknown**

**Penalty:**  
**Quest fails if you die.**

"Don't force yourself to talk when you're in that sort of condition!"

"No… in that last exchange… I cursed… weakened… his magic… 7 minutes… you can do… Please…"

Godou noted with distress the Ferrex seemed to be growing progressively weaker as he spoke and his breaths grew more ragged.

"Yeah… I promise..."

**You have accepted the quest.**

Quietly, Godou accepted the request, a torrent of emotions starting to rise as he looked the dying form of his friend. There was no reason not to accept. There was no reason…

"Good… Then I will entrust… this to you…"

Ferrex relaxed as Godou accepted his request, glad to get his message across. He took of his pendants and shoved them weakly, into Godou's hand. Then with a trace of irony on in his voice, he muttered.

"Man… Divine Saints… are really… hard to kill…"

And said no more. His body glowed suddenly and then started to dissolve into flames similar to how a player's body would upon death. However, the colour of the flames was completely different. They were golden and blazed like a bonfire, as if to notify the world of the passing of a great power.

The dam holding back Godou's emotions broke as he watched Ferrex dissolve into golden flames. A jumbled mixture of emotions assaulted him. Anger. Frustration. Sorrow.

No, rather than sorrow, what he felt was emptiness. Players respawned after they died. That was a fact that he had gotten used to since coming to this virtual world.

But Ferrex was an NPC.

NPCs were different.

Unlike players who only treated Royal Road as a game, NPCs had to live in this in world.

**MORALE has dropped. **

**MORALE is now negative.**

Players would only have to face a mere loss in experience points if they were killed but NPCs were different.

For them, this was reality.

They were the people of this world.

As such, they were the people who would really die if they get killed!

**MORALE has been converted to DESPAIR. **

**You have lost the will to fight. **

**All skills and spells will fail.**

CLATTER!

The sounds of weapons dropping from the hands of the despairing fighters echoed across the field.

However, Godou paid no attention to it. Having just witnessed a friend permanently die fight in front of him, there was no way that he would be in the right mind to notice this.

Considering this, of course, sadness was an obvious reaction. However, overwhelming sadness were anger and frustration.

Anger at Ferrex for dying.

Anger at Seirph for killing him.

Anger at himself not being able to save him.

And Frustration.

Yes.

He had been frustrated all along.

Frustrated at his own weakness.

Frustrated at his inability to do anything up in this point of time.

During the fight with the demon he had had only been able to become a distraction while Ferrex, Reta and even Flay put their lives on the line to take it down.

During their assault on Seirph, he could only watch helplessly on the side lines as his peers sacrificed themselves to try and kill Seirph.

And just now, he had helplessly witnessed one he had called his friend die in front of him.

The shock sunk in.

What would he do now?

What could he do?

Would he attack Seirph in a fit of anger and surely be killed along the way?

Would he run away from the battlefield mourning the loss of his comrades and later sing tales of their bravery?

Would he try and beg for forgiveness, forever cursing his moment of weakness?

Or would he simply try to forget everything about this event?

Would he come out of the capsule afterwards, just pretending that this never happened and never log onto Royal Road again?

DON'T SCREW WITH ME!

Such petty actions were neither appropriate for his style or stature! Rather, Godou felt that he would never forgive himself if he did such a thing.

After all, the one known as Kusanagi Godou was not so weak.

Instead, wouldn't it be more appropriate to just smash the enemy that was before him right now?

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to make to taste the pain and weight of all the suffering he caused?

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to force him to kneel down and tremble in fear?

After all, he was given the privilege of making such unreasonable requests.

After all, he was a King, a monster capable of killing gods.

That's right, a Devil King was such a position. For people like them who fought gods on a regular basic such a situation should be a walk in the park.

That's right, he was such an amazing existence. If he couldn't achieve victory in such a hopeless situation then he had no right to call himself a Devil King.

That's right, Ferrex, I will keep my promise to you and survive.

I will keep my promise to you and obtain victory!

If there was only a 0.0000000000000000001% chance of victory then all he simply had to do was drag out that 0.0000000000000000001%. To become a Campione, that level of ability was the bare minimum!

A rush of adrenaline surged through Godou's body, his determination blowing away all his hesitations, heightening his senses and honing his mind to a perfect mental state.

Conversely, this effect had nothing to do with the mechanics of Royal Road and of course, there were no numerical changes on the stats of his avatar.

This was the rush of excitement he would only feel when he was truly serious about winning. A state where his natural reflexes, inborn dynamic vision and the monstrous concentration of a Campione completely optimised his combat ability.

Previously, this had never happen to him when he fought in Royal Road because despite the realism of the virtual world there was always some corner of his mind that thought "Ah this is just a game, I am not in any real danger so I don't have to take this seriously".

But now he thought differently.

Virtual Reality was just as real and important as reality. Monster, NPCs and players were all conflicting elements in this world.

They were all alive. And they all fought amongst and against each other, following the twisted wishes of the creator, the so called god of this world.

However, if such a tragic world was predetermined by the rules of some sadist game developer then I refused accept it! That's right, Godou refused to acknowledge it!

Ding!

**You have learnt new skill: Overpowering Will (Passive)**

**Overpowering Will is now active.**

**Fighting spirit is continually rising.**

As he reached that conclusion, Godou found himself immune from the paralysing atmosphere created by DESPAIR.

Unfinished, discarded plans recklessly joined together in Godou's mind combined with all the knowledge he had obtained about this viritual world. It was only when fueled by his resolve and anger that he would think this way. There was a way to obtain victory. He was confident of it. Now all that was left was to improvise until he reached his ideal solution!

Realising this, Godou decided to do something about the pitiful state of the defence army. This was all for the sake of victory. Godou looked for an elevated platform, saw one and climbed on top of it. From his position he could see the remaining survivors. Of the original 3000 about only 1000 remained.

Despair and hopelessness was written on all of their faces. Seirph, who had yet to renew his assault, watched him curiously from afar. Godou glared at him but focused on the issue at hand. Your turn will come later.

He took a deep breath.

"HEY NOW, ISN'T THIS PATHETIC! Aren't you guys supposed to be the strongest military in Versailles?! How pitiful, for all of you to give up as soon as you have no one to lead you! Strongest in Versailles, don't make me laugh, aren't you the ones getting owned by a single enemy right now?"

Although his voice did not seem particularly loud, all the survivors had heard him and responded. Godou spoke deliberately choosing words which he knew would incite anger from the demoralised army.

"Brat! Do know how much we went through-"

"You noob! He just curb stomped the-"

"IF YOU HAVE THE ENERGY TO COMPLAIN THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"

"What?!"

"A team that has no chance to win is one that has given up! Who gave you permission to just decide that defeat is inevitable! If there's an obstacle before you then smash it down!

He took down our strongest fighters. But so what?! Look at what happened to him in exchange! He is no longer as strong as he was from the start. Are you just going to let their sacrifices go in vain?

Impossible? Invincible? No such thing. There is no such thing. All I see is a monster waiting to be killed.

No matter how you look at it we still outnumber him 1000 to 1. That means we have about a 1000 chances to kill him. Now, even if we fail 999 times as long as we succeed on the 1000th try then victory belongs to us!

HEY SOLDIERS OF KALLAMORE! IF YOU HAVE GUTS TO CALL YOURSELF A WARRIOR ON THE BATTLEFIELD THEN LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!"

"Tch… Don't get ahead of yourself brat"

"He's right! It's too early to give up!"

"…rely on you pfft, I can walk on my own two feet…"

"WE ARE STILL ALIVE! AND EVEN IF YOU DON'T FIGHT YOU WILL STILL GET KILLED SO WHY NOT DIE TRYING?!

DON'T YOU WANT TO PROVE THAT YOU'RE NOT ALL TALK AND NO BITE?!

DON'T YOU WANT TO AVENGE YOUR FALLEN COMRADES?

AS LONG AS WE CAN FIGHT THE BATTLE ISN'T OVER!"

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Ding!

**+ 1 Charisma**

**+ 1 Leadership**

**You have learnt new skill: Rallying Call****You have used Rallying Call.**

**DESPAIR has been converted to FURY. You and your allies have been placed in a berserk state optimised for combat. **  
**+ 3% Health regeneration**  
**+ 6% Mana regeneration **  
**+ 4 Stamina **

**Second Wind Buff has been applied to everyone who heard your speech.**  
**+ 4% damage output**  
**+ 7% to all stats**  
**+ 110 Fighting Spirit**

The army roared in response to Godou's forceful attempts to rouse their spirits. However, that wasn't the point of the rallying call.

If I read him right, Seirph is going to focus all his attention on me now.

Godou's real goal was to have Seirph focus his attention on him. Bolstering the fighting ability of the army was just a positive side effect.

Running to the front of the army he shouted.

"NOW EVERYONE CHARGE!"

Part 4

Godou led the charge, the stacked buffs on him allowing him to keep up with and outrun players more than 100 times his level.

Seirph raised his hand as if to cast a spell and frowned. Then with a swipe of his hand he yell:

"Foolish mortals! Aren't you forgetting something?"

The demonic spirits which were also pulled in by Seirph's gravity spell jumped in front of the army preventing everyone except for Godou from passing through.

An assassin of some sort sudden ducked out from the barrier of demonic spirits and also charged at Seirph ahead of Godou.

Seirph raised his hand at the assassin as if to cast a spell but nothing happened. By now the assassin had reached the range of melee combat and leap at Seirph with a dagger in hand.

Frowning, Seirph, neatly dodged the assassin with monk-like movements and in the same movement, he successfully summoned a spear of light and stabbed the assassin in the chest.

Convulsing, the assassin died and dissolved into grey flames.

It was then that Godou confronted him. Seeing him, Seirph presented his ever-present benevolent smile and asked mildly:

"Oh, the same white cloak… Was that Divine Saint from before a friend of yours?"

Godou said nothing. Seriph was currently in a stance with the spear of light with showed that he had had some experience with it. He could see that Seirph was assessing him now as well. Both sides were watching the other for the slightest opening.

"You know he showed me a surprisingly good show… hahaha… but then again he was a Divine Saint… Strange… did he suicide or something? The amount of Restriction Energy didn't increase by that much. Your glare answers everything. Marvellous fighting spirit. Embinyu will welcome your sacrifice in open arms.

"You sure talk a lot to someone your about kill. Are you stalling for time?"

At the same moment he finished his sentence Godou charged in holding his sword with both arms like a baseball bat.

"Hahaha… seen through already huh… well, I'll admit it… that friend of yours managed to disable most of my spell casting abilities for 5 minutes."

Seirph let out a series of thrusts rapidly as Godou entered his range. Using his dynamic vision which had enabled to hit see and hit countless fastballs in his junior years, Godou ducked and dodged under all these attacks, careful not to let the spear of light touch his body or his sword.

"To just simply tell your opponent your own weakness… you're overconfident!"

"Maybe, but unlike him I sense nothing special from you."

Letting go of his sword with his right hand Godou created a small knife and threw it at Seirph in an underarm throw. At this sort of distance there was no way he would miss.

**You have created a Mana Weapon**

**Your Mana Weapon has absorbed the holy aura being released from you**

**Mana Weapon has been converted to Holy Mana Weapon**.

Seirph flinched but failed to dodge it. I knew it! Had Seirph possessed the divine skill of someone like Doni then such an attack would have been dodged effortlessly. From their brief exchange, Godou could see that martial prowess as not Seirph's forte.

Taking advantage of this opening, Godou closed in and swung his sword, scoring a direct hit. Seirph grunted at the impact and quickly backed away. Godou tried to follow up the attack but was stopped by another series of quick spear thrusts.

This time it was Godou's turn to back away. Dodging thrusts, Godou backed away from the edge of the field and on to the staircase of leading to the entrance of the Lost Temple of Lou. One of the thrusts aimed at him grazed him.

**You have taken damage from a glancing blow.**

**You lost 1021 HP**

Almost a third of his Health had been taken out from a glancing blow, while on the other hand, the few successful attacks he had managed to land dealt negligible damage. It was clear to even an amateur that the two combatants were on completely different levels. Literally speaking, there was a gap of over 500 levels between them.

And yet the combatants themselves were engrossed in the fight.

Godou had taken a few more glancing blows and was down to the last 14% of his health. In this sort of situation a hit of any kind would be enough to kill him. He had also tried a few other surprise attacks using his Mana Weapon creation skill but Seirph as now wary of them and they did not have the same impact as when first used.

However, such thoughts had no weight on Godou's mind in this sort of situation.

So what if his opponent was stronger than him. Strength did not necessarily equate to victory. If someone slaps you on the right cheek then wasn't it natural to slap them on the left? In other words, if someone he knew fell in battle, then he would avenge them. It was as simple as that.

Ding!

**You have learnt a new skill: Survival Instinct (Passive)**

**Survival Instinct is now active**  
**+ 96% Damage output**

Messages appeared in front of him but he ignored them. Seirph was by no means an easy opponent and it took all hit concentration to dodge the attacks and count for time.

On the other hand, the winning side of these two combatants was fighting for a different reason. At first Seirph had only engaged him in combats so that he could make the Defence Army's morale plummet again. However, as the fight went on and the youth in front of him kept dodging his attacks with rough animal like movements, he began to fight for a different reason.

It wasn't because the wounds dealt by the youth were dangerous, indeed they were more painful than life-threatening but he could heal them with holy magic later anyway.

He could sense it. His opponent was growing in power and presence as the fight continued. He was evolving. Adapting. It was truly terrifying. Having to struggle against an opponent which he should have been easily able to sacrifice.

As the fight continued the youth's potential began to take form. Having personally witnessed this, Seirph knew instinctively that he should not let this opponent get away. It was the feeling of "this guy is going to become really troublesome if he is allowed to live."

Suddenly, the youth broke away from the fight and started sprinting up the rest of the stairs. Did his nerves finally fail him? Or was it a trap?

Either way Seirph ran after him. Letting him live was definitely the wrong choice.

Seirph ran up into the temple and saw that the youth was nowhere in sight. The Lost Temple of Lou was also a sight to behold on the inside as well. Engraved pillars supported the base of the main building allowing the temple to take one a slight pyramid shape as the strong base allowed the ground floor to be built upon, eliminating any need for extra buildings.

Cautiously, he walked into the large entrance room. In terms of size, this room took up the entire ground floor so that youth could be far away. There were 4 spiralling staircases on all 4 corners of the temple. Numerous engraved pillars stood, works of art in their own right, in an organised fashion. The entire building itself was glowing in golden light.

Seirph extended his web of holy sensing to try and find the youth. Nothing. If seemed like it wasn't going to be that easy.

The problem was that the Lost Temple of Lou itself was emitting a strong holy aura while the youth's body, from the effects of the combined holy buffs on him emitted a weak holy aura. As a result, the Lost Temple of Lou was able to camouflage his presence. A coincidence? Or was this done on purpose?

No matter, he was determined to offer that youth as a sacrifice no matter what it takes now. As Seirph was thinking that he saw a flash of light as something flew at him.

He batted away with this spear of light.

"Simply giving away your position. How foolish."

"Being foolish is fine. I have a promise to keep. Cowering in fear isn't the way to keep it."

The youth appeared from behind a pillar, having just tried and failed to ambush him with one of his strange mana weapons.

"Still showing insolence to the very end huh?"

It went without saying that Seirph released a fury of thrusts as he said this. Since the youth had gone ahead and revealed himself, it would be an insult not to take advantage of it.

But still the youth kept on dodging, weaving between the pillars to distance himself from him. He attacked without care, hitting and destroying the pillars as often as he missed the youth.

The battle went on in this manner for a while. Time passed and he felt the curse imprisoning his magical abilities weaken and dissipate.

"Hahaha! With this, 5 minutes has passed and my magic has return but yet you still haven't managed to slay me human! Therefore, you have lost your final chance of victory!"

"Don't count on it!"

The youth suddenly threw a bundle of small round objects at his feet. They exploded and created a large smokescreen which surround him and blocked his vision. He heard the sound of something fly and clatter pasthim to the right.

"Holy Lance!"

But he retaliated by shooting magic in the direction which the object came from. The sounds of something breaking and crumbling could be heard. Another projectile flew from behind and hit him on the back of his head.

He grunted slightly and blasted another bolt of magic in that direction. How was that youth able to hit him so accurately in this smoke? Surely his visibility should be as bad as his. Was he predicting his movements?

Growing frustrated, he imagined a gale, no a storm of wind so powerful that it blast all the smoke away and blew the away his surroundings as well.

"Storm Nova!"

Several things happened in the next few seconds.

The smoke cleared.

He noticed that the youth was now a fair distance away from him outside the temple.

And most importantly, he noticed that his spell had destroyed all the remaining pillars supporting the temple.

In other words, the building was about to collapse on top of him.

He saw the temple about to fall on him and quickly weighted out his options. It was unclear whether or not hisbarrier could withstand the force of a building falling on it in his current state. And even if a barrier could block it then what? He would still be buried under several tons of rubble when the barrier wore off. He couldn't dig a tunnel and hide in it either, the impact of the building falling would still kill him. No, defending was not an option.

That meant that the only option left was to destroy the building before if reached him. He mentally when through the list of his current useable spells. There was only spell that could save him from this right now.

Holy Lance was not powerful enough to do the job and even he could not visualise anything strong enough to blow away the building in his current state.

That left only that spell. However, that spell came with extreme risks which he would rather not face. No, hecould also use this to his advantage. Destroy only the parts of the temple that were going to land directly on himand use the shockwaves from the spell to scatter the rest of the rubble like rain, hopefully landing on that youth as well.

Within the span of a second he made that decision and started chanting the incantation of that spell.

"I call upon all the mana here… Let this bright light burn…"

He held his hand up aiming for the centre of the falling ceiling. In his peripheral vision he caught sight of a flicker of movement.

Shit that's what he was aiming for! The moment he had decided to destroy the temple that youth had thrown one of his strange mana weapons at him. No choice then. Don't think I can't get rid of that as well!

"… and become the strike of fury… MANA"

At the last moment he widened the range of where his spell was going to land. Now the spell would target the entirety of the falling roof and destroy the mana weapon through the shockwaves produced by the spell as well. But wait…

"BURN!"

As soon as he completed the spell he regretted it.

That youth, though seemingly inexperienced had always fought him with animal-like ferocity and cunning. Surely he had realised that a single mana weapon would not be enough of kill him. In fact the damage would also be negligible.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

But then why? As the spell torn up the collapsing temple he suddenly remembered the presence of that thingwhich had been embedded into the temple.

In horror, he finally realised that he had been tricked.

The entire fight was a trap to get him to hit it with his strongest attack!

As soon as Godou had thrown his final holy mana spear, he had bolted. He ran, at an incredible rate, his speed powered by buffs on his agility and movement speed. Leaping down the stairs, trying to get as far away as possible before diving for cover behind a large rock.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A bright light flashed accompanied by a deafening rumble, stunning Godou despite his precautions. Had he looked behind him, he would have seen a wide towering pillar of light where the temple had been, reminiscent of the explosions created by the falling meteors almost 10 minutes previously.

The ground rumbled and shook as the force of the pillar of light caused minor landslides in various places around and on the mountain. By a stroke of luck (or not), the demonic spirits had managed to push back the army so that all other combatants were further away from the blast than Godou. Coincidentally, the demonic spirits self-destructed shortly after the pillar of light appeared.

And then there was silence.

Ignoring the pain of his injuries, Godou staggered out from the behind the rock and stiffened.

The side of the rock which had been facing the explosion had eroded away. The rock had been shaved literally to the thickness of a sheet of glass. Had the explosion been a bit stronger then it would have completely destroy it and hit Godou as well. That was too close.

Surely, no-one could survive that. But then Godou remembered Ferrex's last words: "Divine Saints are hard to kill" and raised his guard.

If Divine Saints were really as strong as they were cracked up to be then Seirph was probably still alive. The fact that he had not gained any messages about gaining experience from fighting Seirph supported this line of thought.

Quickly, Godou made his way back up the devastated path of stairs.

Seirph had fallen perfectly for the trap he had laid.

Ferrex was the one who give him that idea. No rather, it was his death that made him remember all the scraps of knowledge that Ferrex had ever given him. In the library room on top of the church in a nearby town, hadn't Ferrex once taught him about Divine Gems? Something along the lines of "Divine Gems cause more harm than good on the chaotic battlefield".

Hadn't Ferrex also said earlier this day that Divine Gems were unstable as well.

And so Godou remembered that the Lost Temple of Lou contained one. And so he decided to gamble on it.

During his melee with Seirph, Godou had noticed that though he was a supposed to be a healer, Seirph was prone to attacking rather than defending.

Thus Godou had been certain that collapsing the temple of Seirph would not be able to finish him off. Rather, it would be enough to provoke him to attack instead.

There was a chance that Seirph would discover the ploy as they went along so Godou tried to keep him as focused on close combat as possible.

What happened afterwards could be understood in a series of steps:

1) The Seriph's spell thoroughly destroyed temple.  
2) The spell struck the divine gem embedded in the temple.  
3) The divine gem reflected and amplified the spell  
4) The divine gem exploded, its own magical properties amplifying and reflecting its own explosion into a giant pillar

The end result was the now crumbing ruins of the once majestic Lost Temple of Lou which Godou was currently climbing his way through.

Reading the opponents habits and abilities, coming up with countermeasures and plans as the situation demanded, using strange tricks akin to breaking the rules and doing everything necessary to obtain victory, this was Godou's style of fighting!

He had long past the stage of being stubborn about his methods of winning. If there was no righteous or legal way to do something, then doing something darker was perfectly fine. If one is not possess that least this level of adaptability then they had no right to call themselves a godslayer!

Seirph staggered out of the wreckage. Even for him it had been a miracle that he made it out alive. At the last moment he had gambled on everything he had, blowing up all his remaining demonic spirits into Resurrection Energy to activate Heaven's Calling: Return.

**Due to low stamina, all stats have been reduced by 90%**

**Due to low health, all stats have been reduced by a further 50%**

Thankfully, it worked and he survived, just barely though. He had to get away quickly. In his current state he would be easily pickings for anyone to kill.

There was literally no Resurrection Energy left in the area now and he had managed to revive with just the bare minimum about of health and stamina.

It didn't make sense. Seirph couldn't understand it. Why did this happen to him? He understood why the divine gem exploded perfectly fine.

What he couldn't understand was how he had managed to get caught up in that youth's plan?

When did it start?

Why didn't he realise it?

It just didn't make sense.

Hurriedly, he took out magical reagents and started to draw out a magic circle. He could figure all that out later. What he needed to do now as escape. Another emergency teleport!

Godou reached to the top of the stairs to see Seirph on all fours, trying to draw something on the ground. Instinctively, he realised that he was trying to escape.

NO! You will not get away!

Ding!

**You have learnt a new skill: Might of the Ruler**

**You have used Might of the Ruler. **  
**+554 Fighting Spirit**

Seirph flinched and tried to back away.

He raised one hand up about to cast a spell.

Thinking fast, Godou raised his arm.

Seirph's palm glowed.

Godou threw his sword at him.

The spell Seirph was casting sputtered and died.

Godou's sword hit Seirph in the chest.

Seirph stared at him with disbelieving eyes.

And then died.

The heavens flared and several orbs of light rained down from the sky, becoming absorbed by Godou's body.

Ding!

**A hidden class is available to you.**

** Would you like to change to that class? **

**You cannot refuse.**

**Your class has been changed to Overlord.**

** You have gained the unique traits and abilities of the Overlords.**

**Level up (x119)**

**+ 253 500 Fame**

**You are responsible for the complete destruction of one of the Church of Lou's Ancient Wonders.**

**You have incited the anger of the God of Light, Lou**

**You are now the enemy of the Church of Lou**

**The God Lou has cursed you. **

**You will take damage from being in the sun for too long. Laser beams of light will rain down upon you on sunny days. All stats will be reduced by 99% during the day. All light attributed monsters will attack you on sight… etc etc**

**- 10 000 fame**

**+ 13 450 Notoriety****Quest Complete!**  
**You have slain the Divine Saint of the Embinyu and managed to fulfil the request of Ferrex, the Divine Saint of Athene. **

**Rewards:**  
**Due to the large amount of collateral damage as a result of your battle including the destruction of an irreplaceable sacred holy building as well as irreversible environmental damage on the Seinban Mountains, the rewards have been severely lessened.**

**The wrath of the God Lou has been abated. You are no longer cursed by the God Lou. **

**Status with church of Lou: Neutral**

**You have obtained a title: The Amateur who did the Impossible**

**+ 20 to all stats**

**+ 10% Magic resistance****You have obtained a title: Destructive Saviour **

**+ 30 to all stats**

**Grants access to skill: Collateral Damage (Passive)**

**New stat generated. Divinity.**

**Divine Control Mastery has been created.**

**You have learnt a new skill: **

**Heretic Decree:****Unknown**

**Divine Control Mastery level up.**

**Divine Control Mastery level up.**

**Divine Control Mastery level up…**

Godou collapsed on the ground as a flood of messages filled his vision.

It was finally over.

And as for the once majestic Temple of Lou…

It was in an irreparable state of complete ruin.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Vol.1 Epilogue

"So, what's the report for this month?"

[XXXXX new players have registered an account in Royal Road world wide…]

The one who asked this question was a man sitting on a comfortable chair in a dark room surrounded by expensive looking widescreen monitors. The one who replied was a diamond shaped icon displayed on the monitor directly in front of the man.

That man was none other than one of the creators of Royal Road, the engineer who had designed and perfected the A.I system of Royal Road. Naturally, the one he was conversing with was the AI "goddess" of Versailles.

[232 new guilds have been formed. The average level of players is 100. The current highest level players are in the low 300 range. 126 hidden classes have been found this month, among them are the Dark Walker class, Blade Runner class and the Creature class.]

"Ah... The beauty of Royal Road is that most classes are not preprogramed into the game. Many can be produced spontaneously depending on the situation."

[You did directly give the information on some of the classes yourself though]

"You mean those classes? Well I made them out of whim and put a heapload of restrictions on unlocking them. In fact I was certain that no one would be able to obtain them. I really shocked me when someone was able to unlock one a few years ago. Originally there are only 40 of such classes in Royal Road and half of them are restricted as NPC only classes. Though whose to say that more won't be generated along the way."

[There are currently 11 people who have managed to unlock such a class.]

"Wait what?! Last month there were only 7! Are you telling me that in that in the span of one month 4 people managed to unlock one of those classes?"

The reason why that man believed that those classes would be unlockable was because not only did players need to have skills to unlock them, they also needed to possess a lot of luck and a few other things.

[Coincidently, they all unlocked the Overlord class. The players that unlocked those classes are also registered as new players this month as well. Looking at their character information they were all under level 30 when they unlocked it.]

"Was it a glitch? Or maybe Hackers? No, I don't believe that even the world's military combined could hack into Royal Road. So were they leeching off a bigger group or kill stealing?"

[No they all seemed to have unlocked the class legitimately. I have recordings of their fights.]

The man's disbelief was justified of course. The Overlord class could only be unlocked by killing a Divine Saint or a Divine Saint Knight. Now putting aside that the majority of the Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights were over level 500, the chance of even encountering one after just starting out was about 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001%. The probability of defeating one was practically zero. In fact even the low level ones were surprisingly hard to kill.

In addition to that, you also had to unlock a series of skills that could only be learnt if a player refused to believe absolute control of the coding of the game. This was of course, an impossible feat for most gamers. Indeed, hardcore gamers were the ones who understood that no matter what they could not resist the rules of the games themselves and so played the game to the limits that the rules would allow.

This meant that in terms of games, those 4 players were amateurs. But could an amateur conduct such feats?

The man's doubts turned to disbelief and admiration as he watched recordings of the battles the four fought.

After seeing their battles with his own eyes he still couldn't believe it. Although the four had different fighting styles and different ways of winning, they all showed an unreasonable combination of excessive adaptability and recklessness.

They all fought beyond their limits and won in a battle where defeat was inevitable.

"Add these four to the list of players I'm keeping track of. And tell me more about the actual players."

[Detailed information cannot be obtained. All four of these people seem to be protected by a government or organisation of some sort.]

"Oh interesting…"

Versailles was the perfect AI. Therefore there was nothing it couldn't hack. However, this meant that those players had the backing of someone really troublesome. The hacking would be detected and Unicorn could very well end up being sued for invasion of privacy.

[The connection signal from these players can be traced back to 3 different continents. There are 2 in Europe, 1 in North America and 1 in Asia. The one in Asia does not seem to be in Korea though.]

"Truly mysterious people then…"

When a person dies their soul reaches a pathway. The end point of each pathway was ultimately dependent on many factors such as the gods they followed and the choices they make in life.

In the case of the foreigners sent by Gaea, when they died their bodies would dissolve but their souls remained intact and were placed in a "safe house".

After a period of time, their bodies would reform, allowing their souls to reinhabit them, thus allowing foreigners to "resurrect" after death.

On the other hand, when a native died, their soul is sent to the heavens or hell were they were unable to change or evolve any further.

Research on ways to escape from death existed no matter what era you looked in. Originally, it was just one field of research. Over time, the paths of research split into two major branches.

One branch gradually evolved to become what was now known a dark magic, more specifically, the art of necromancy.

The other branch gradually became more focused on healing injuries, allowing the recipients to revive from a near dead state. This became known as holy magic.

Needless to say, both were just two opposing sides of the same coin. But things were more grey than black or white.

If one application of dark magic could be beneficial when used with holy magic, then the idea was taken and sublimated into the overall development of holy magic and vice versa.

There exists however, a certain enchantment researched by a certain church worshiping a certain war goddess of wisdom that allowed the soul of a person to be extracted from the body and placed in a certain vessel. Conversely, this technique later spread to unrelated fields such as blacksmithing.

Recalling the soul of a warrior who still wished to continue fighting and placing it in an inanimate object, this technique became known as recalling the souls of the fallen.

Using this enchantment, one would be able to achieve technical immortality as long as the vessel was not destroyed. However, this was also a state of technical death as the vessel could not evolve or change by itself. Tests on this had been conducted on various animals and monsters. More than half the time, this technique failed.

The reason for failure was concluded to be: "The souls of those who was separated were not strong enough to withstand the extraction. Although, powerful monsters were sometimes successful it was clear that unless one had a soul as powerful as a divine being or an ascended human then there was no guarantee of success."

On a certain mountain, while fighting against a certain opponent, a certain youth possessing such a powerful soul who worshiped that certain war goddess of wisdom had voluntarily cast that certain enchantment on himself.

On the brink of death, that certain youth had destroyed his body and bound his soul onto a certain vessel, entrusting that vessel to a certain friend.

Now, 10 minutes after he had cast sacrificed his body, the youth's soul had finally stabilised allowing him to have lucid thoughts.

Despite his lack of eyes and ears, the youth was still able to "see" and "hear" things in this vessel. No, rather than seeing objects, he could sense their presence. Having regained control of his thoughts, the youth now cautiously extended the range of his "sight" while fearing for the worst.

What he saw was a shocking scene of uncontrolled destruction which had not been present when he still had his body only minutes previously.

A priceless holy relic was now in complete ruin. Landslides and avalanches had occurred in various places across the mountain and would probably cause property damage to those living close to the mountain.

He noticed with relief that the certain friend he had entrusted his vessel to was still alive and well. The adversary who had led him to his "death" was nowhere in sight.

Questions rose in his mind. The fastest way to answer them was to ask so simply he said:

[Godou, I know I told you to survive until I could recollect myself but… How exactly did a disaster on this scale occur in the 10 minutes I was gone?]

"Ferrex?!"


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

Mt Revils was one of the more dangerous places on the Seinban Mountain range which surrounded the Kingdom of Kallamore. Legend had it that the place had been cursed due to the sealing ritual of a disastrous god of calamity. And yet, there was also a legend about it being a place where blessings of gods could be randomly attained.

Realistically speaking, these legends were based on more on fiction than fact. However, certain miracles were known to occur on the mountain.

For example, it was actually one of the rare areas of intersecting ley lines. This meant that there was a massive amount of mana resting below its surface which could amplify certain abilities and strength the power of religion structures.

Another miracle of note was that it was on this very mountain that two Divine Saints, the ones who were known as the Proxies of God, conducted a battle of game breaking proportions which caused a massive influx of holy power in the area. Shortly afterwards, one Divine Saints was defeated, barely managing to cling to the realm of the living as a shadow of his previous self.

Shortly after that, an incident occurred where coincidence piled upon coincidence with a healthy dose of luck allowed for another miracle in which an amateur achieved the impossible and obtained victory against an undefeatable opponent thus ascending into the ranks of the Divine tier.

Presently, about 8 hours after this miracle had occurred and the sun was now in the process of rising. A paladin armed with a sword and shield wearing white armour with gold plated lines rode his horse up this mountain.

He was Vin Hearstone, the leader of the local church of Freya situated in this region of the Kallamore Kingdom. A group of 20 members of the local church of Freya trailed behind him. The entire group was on horseback.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

"Yep, the massive influx of holy power occurred somewhere around here."

Naturally, the one who asked this question was Vin, the one who answered him was the man riding next to him, garbed simple white priests clothes.

He was a man assigned to the local Church of Freya but yet was a direct subordinate of someone high ranked than Vin. Despite this somewhat suspicious position, that man had never tried to unnecessarily usurp Vin's authority so any suspicion on his political motives were unfounded.

His name was Lexus Dinsan, a man who Vin had known for many years but ultimately knew little of what he was thinking about. That wasn't the only mystery about Lexus. Whether it was fighting off hordes of undead or taking part in a hunt against boss monsters, not once did Vin didn't ever remember seeing Lexus break a sweat. The only thing that ever pushed Lexus to his limit was probably the endless pile of documents that his superior shoved onto him to correct.

The reason for this group's exposition into Mt Revils was to investigate the massive influx of holy power that several members of the church had sensed quite a while ago.

In actual fact, the initial objective of the group was to investigate the Church of Freya in the nearby town of Naidiriv, having received news of suspicious behaviour in the town. Due to the church teleport gate in Naidiriv being blocked for some unknown reason, the group had been forced to travel between the towns on horseback.

On the trip there, several of the members on the church were able to feel the large influx of holy power and a slight tremor, after much debate, the group decided to have a slight detour and to investigate the source of the disturbance. The ones who felt the abnormality were the priests and by overlapping the directions in which the influx was felt, the group was able to narrow down the epicentre of the disruption to their current location.

As the group ascended the mountain, they suddenly found signs of a fight. Things like scratched trees, broken weapons, blood stains and equipment, corpses etc were in plain sight.

An investigation of several of the corpses showed that the majority of the slain were in the soldiers from either Tellap or Naidiriv. However, some of them were members of the local Church of Freya, people that Vin would readily call his comrades.

Angered by this sight, the church cautiously advanced further up the mountain, determined to capture and pass judgement on the culprit.

As they came to a clearing near the peak of the mountain, the group suddenly found themselves surrounded by a small army of about 1000 soldiers.

The group quickly formed a defensive formation with the paladins standing shields ready in a circle around the priests. Were these the perpetrators?

Unfazed by all this, Lexus suddenly shouted out:

"We are the local members of the Holy Order of Freya here to investigate a disturbance in the holy force! State your affiliations!"

The soldiers hesitated sightly upon hearing this until someone stepped forward and replied:

"We are the combined defence army of Naidiriv and Tellap! If you truly are the Church of Freya we mean you no harm! But if you are another imposter then we will show you no mercy! Now can anyone confirm that they are who they say they are?"

Glares of suspicion were exchanged between the two parties. The Church of Freya was suspicious because according to their information the defence army was supposed to be about 3 times the current size of this force. On the other hand, the soldiers seemed to have their own reasons for being wary about members of the church.

Then calls of confirmation ran out throughout the army. Seeing the familiar faces of friends and acquaintances, both sides relaxed, having confirmed that they were not each other's enemies.

Thus the Church of Freya mingled in with the soldiers questioning them about the massive influx of holy power and about what happened to them.

By the time that Vin had gotten the gist of what happened to the army another hour had passed. Apparently, the 3000 strong defence army was led into a trap by a single person who, with the help of demonic spirits, wiped out about 2000 soldiers in less than 1 hour. After a fierce battle, the army was ultimately able to kill the culprit. However, due to their now low numbers and the fact that it was still night time, the army decided to camp in their current location and retreat back to town when the sun came up.

Vin found this report hard to swallow but the ones who gave him this report were not ones to lie. The other members of the church of Freya were also doubtful. Only Lexus seemed unfazed, as he had deduced the true meaning behind the story. Vin didn't bother asking him about it though. Getting information out of Lexus was sometimes harder than getting him to clean up his own messes.

"Lexus!"

Vin turned and saw that it was a familiar looking dark haired youth who had called out to the group, no specifically to Lexus. As he glanced over, he suddenly became aware of an indescribable pressure surrounding the boy.

It was not an uncomfortable feeling, rather, it was the sense of respect and majesty you get when you meet the pope or the king. The feeling you get in the presence of something that by far transcended your own existence.

A rush of emotions rushed through Vin, so powerful that he almost kneeled down. Half of him seemed to want to pay his respects to this youth while the other half wanted him to run away as fast as he could.

Vin saw that this notion was reflected in the faces of the other members of the church of Freya as well. Some of the members with lower faith stats actually did kneel down while some with lower fighting spirit backed away a few steps.

"W Who is he?"

In a hushed voiced, Vin directed the question to the nearby Lexus who was looking bemused.

"One of our unofficial trainees. Come to think of it, I did give him a quest to reinforce Naidiriv. I guess I'll go and listen to what he has to say."

Leaving that line, Lexus led the boy to a location further away , leaving Vin, and the rest of the church in confounded by what had just occurred.

Part 2

9 hours previously. (In-game time)

After his miraculous victory against Seirph, the Divine Saint of Embinyu, Godou found himself filled with a sense of empty loss. After extracting his revenge, he couldn't seem to find within himself the motivation to continue.

Thus, it came as a pleasant surprise for Godou when the telepathic question resounded in his mind in a familiar voice.

[Godou, I know I told you to survive until I could recollect myself but… How exactly did a disaster on this scale occur in the 10 minutes I was gone?]

Startled, he had jumped and looked around, searching for the source of the voice of the friend he thought he had lost. A dark haired youth wearing a toga over his clothes and a white cloak similar to his own, Godou didn't see such a person anywhere around him.

[Over here!]

It was then that he realised that the voice had come from his hand. More accurately, it was coming from the object he had been clasping on tightly at that moment.

The pendants that Ferrex had given him before his "death".

No more accurately, it was a pendent. At some point in time, the two pendants had merged into a single pendant with the emblem of an owl. A metal ring similar to the one Ferrex always wore had appeared incorporated around the emblem.

Relieved that Ferrex was alright, Godou found himself bombarded with a series of questions about what had happened. After he had answered Ferrex to the best of his ability, it was his turn to query about Ferrex's current situation. Ferrex's explanation was complicated and went something along the lines of:

[Before my body was destroyed I cast an enchantment on myself in as a contingency. By using my dying body as a sacrifice, I was able to transfer my soul into a new vessel which I created from the high quality materials in my pendants and my ring before giving them to you for safekeeping. Right now, I am in a frozen state where I can no longer move, cast spells or level up. To put it simply, my current form is that of an ego so to speak.]

After explaining that, Ferrex had proceeded to launch an attack of relentless nagging on Godou.

[The process of the spell I used to do this takes about 10 minutes before I can regain lucid thoughts. That's why I told you to survive! I already weakened Seirph considerably for 5 minutes but there was still no way that he could be completely beaten in that time period. All you had to do was avoid him for the 5 minutes that he had couldn't use spells and somehow survive the rest of the time I needed to recollect myself until I could advise you on how to get out of the situation. But instead… why is it that I see a scene like something that came out of a disaster zone?]

Being the member of a religious order, it seemed that the destruction of such a sacred object such as the Lost Temple of Lou had caused mental trauma to Ferrex. Now that his head had cooled down somewhat, Godou also felt like he had seriously overdone it. Nevertheless, he unsuccessfully tried to defend himself.

"Well, in the end I managed to survive and get rid of Seirph in the end didn't I? I mean, who knows what sorts of damage a troublesome guy like that would have caused unchecked."

[… I think that you're a more dangerous existence than him now! Even a Divine Saint like him would have consideration for their surroundings! But you… that last ploy of yours caused several landslides across the mountain you know… think about how the people living on and around the mountain feel! A And the temple…]

Ferrex seemed a bit lost for words before giving Godou a suggestion in a serious voice.

[If anyone from a religious order, no if anyone at all asks about how it was destroyed, blame it all on the Church of Embinyu. Actually, scratch that! Deny the existence of such a building. If the temple was lost then it's probably regarded as a myth by now and it's better to pretend it didn't exist in the first place. My position as a Divine Saint as enough to placate Lou from cursing you and spreading the information but you will most definitely get hunted down if someone finds out. It was a good thing you were wearing your cloak hood up so no one could identify your appearance…]

Thus this tearful/nagging reunion continued on for some time. Afterwards, Godou collected the items that Seirph had dropped: a ring that similar to the one that Ferrex had worn and a pair of plain scandals. He tried to use his identification skill on them but after failing multiple times to identify them, he gave up and just placed them in his inventory.

After seeing that the other soldiers in the army had decided to camp in the field and with his guilt gnawing at him every time he saw the devastated battlefield, Godou logged out. Almost like he was trying to escape the reality of his actions.

Thus after spending 2 hours or so offline, Godou logged back in and saw that the army was crowding around a certain group of people. He asked Ferrex what this was all about but apparently, Ferrex was placed in a frozen mental state whenever Godou logged out so he didn't know what the commotion was about either.

Curious, Godou moved closer to the commotion and saw several members of the Church of Freya who weren't there originally. After listening in to their conversations, it seemed clear that these church members curious about what had happened to the army.

"Could these guys have come to investigate Seirph or something?"

Seeing Godou about to approach on of the church members, Ferrex gave him a reminder.

[Be careful about how much information you reveal to them. Remember information on the Divine Saints is kept confidential from most people. The only exceptions are the Divine Saint and Saint Knights themselves, the higher ups of the church and the rare individuals like you who find out by accident. Do not mention anything about Divine Saints to anyone but Lexus.]

"Okay. Wait why Lexus? I thought you said this information as confidential."

[Lexus is an exception.]

Ferrex's reply was short and crisp compared to his previously long explanations. Then again, Ferrex had originally been someone who didn't talk much Godou realised. It had just been because of the in-depth explanations he had been forced to give recently that made him seem talkative.

Godou tried to call over one of the church members. However, for some reason the priest had ran away before he could speak, looking terrified. Bewildered, Godou looked around for someone else he could ask when he saw a familiar face.

"Speak of the devil. Isn't that Lexus right there? Lexus!"

A tall figure wearing priest robes but carried no staff, it indeed was the man responsible for providing the duo with their initial training. Lexus looked over as Godou called at him. He seemed taken aback for a few moments but then hid his thoughts behind a bemused expression before walking off and gesturing Godou to follow him.

Without a reason not to, Godou followed him to a location far enough to prevent anybody from eavesdropping on the conversation.

He noted that it seemed strangely quiet, it was as if he could no longer hear the sounds of conversation from outside, but thought nothing further of it.

Part 3

"Hello Godou… You seemed to have changed quite a bit since I last met you."

Although, it was delivered in a calm voice, Lexus's starting statement showed that he had quite a bit of wariness around Godou for some reason. Unsure of how to respond, Godou returned the greeting in a slightly formal tone.

"It's nice to meet you again Lexus. What is the Church of Freya doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. But before we get to that point, what happened to Ferrex?"

[I'm right here.]

Ferrex's telepathic voice resounded in both of their minds. Hearing that, Lexus went "Where?" before quickly identifying the source of the voice as the owl pendant that Godou was now wearing and going "Ah so that must be it" as if he had worked out what had happened.

Noticing Godou staring at him, Lexus cleared his throat and said:

"Okay this is all a deduction right now but, Godou do you have knowledge about the Divine Saints?"

[Yeah. I told him.]

"Then going on with that line of thought, I'm guessing that you two joined the Defence Army because of the reinforce Naidiriv request I give you."

"Yes. We did."

"But on the way you were side tracked into fighting some powerful entity which led you into a trap. Other soldiers have reported having to fight demonic spirits so the entity has to be related to demons or a demonic cult in some way. Then in the face of such a crisis, Ferrex's mental lock on his Heaven's Calling series must have broken allowing him to fight with his abilities as a Divine Saint. Hmm but to cause such a massive holy influx in the area when there are no undead to produce Soul Power from… that must mean that the enemy was either a Divine Saint with a hoard of Scared Energy or a powerful necromancer. However there are no signs of necromancy being used so it must have been the former."

Such terrifying deductive ability. Godou reminded himself that once again, Lexus was not someone to be underestimated.

[Apparently he was from the Order of Embinyu.]

"So then Ferrex must have fought the other Divine Saint and lost but managed to survive by turning into an ego. Judging from the fact that I can't sense any Sacred Energy I'm guessing you used your thump card? So was the end result mutual defeat? What I really can't account for is how Godou ended in his current state."

Feeling sweat trickling down his back, Godou gave a vague answer hoping to prevent Lexus noticing the ruins of the Lost Temple of Lou.

"Ah… about that, after Ferrex kicked it, I sort of… well killed the Divine Saint in revenge and this sort of thing happened to me."

"Really now… How did you do it?"

[Before I turned this way, I managed to weaken the Divine Saint but I believe the Godou made it through mostly with his own abilities. He really can't be classified as normal no matter how you look at him.]

"T That was just luck and I had help from a lot of other people."

Yes! Question avoided. As expected of his fellow perpetrator for causing damage. Admittedly, Ferrex had been trying his best to keep the damage from happening. Godou felt strangely miffed by Ferrex's description of him for some reason though.

"Having luck is considered a skill in itself. That being said I still don't believe that you could beat a weakened Divine Saint with luck alone at the time. Thus, part of the reason must have been from skill. Maybe Mark was right about you… Godou, I do believe that you have a knack for causing destruction as well. After all, a Divine Saint would know not to destroy a building capable of emitting a holy aura even in a ruined state."

Lexus ended his deductions while gesturing the ruined lost Temple of Lou with his eyes. Crap! So he saw through it after all.

Trying to escape the awkward pressure that had suddenly been pressed on him, Godou changed the subject asking:

"So why is the Church of Freya here, Lexus?"

"Hmm… well this group is here as the main party to investigate the strange happenings in Naidiriv when we felt the massive influx in holy power that was caused by your fight and decided to investigate. I'm actually here to run a different errand but came along because of the common destination. Speaking of which, that quest I gave you has more or less been solved."

Ding!

**Quest Complete!**

**As requested you have joined Naidiriv as reinforcements while also being able to solve the puzzle of the missing members of the Church of Freya. **

**Due to the unforseen involvement of the Divine Saint of Embinyu, the quality of the rewards for this quest will be raised to the equivalent of an "S" rank quest. **

**Since the Order of Freya wants to go to Naidiriv to investigate for any other problems caused by the Divine Saint of Embinyu, you are now relieved of your duty to guard Naidiriv.**

**+ 135000 Public Service Points to the Order of Freya**

**Able to obtain a title (Optional)**

**Other rewards are negotiable with Lexus**

**Divine Control Mastery Level Up!**

"For having avenged the lives lost from the Order of Freya and for having wiped out the most powerful member of an evil cult, Godou, the Order of Freya is forever in your debt. Thus, I believe that I can arrange with my superior a position for you that reflects your accomplishments."

**A new title is available for you. **

**Would you like to accept this title?**

Godou was uncomfortable with the praises and respect Lexus had just shown him. After all, Lexus was older than him and all Godou had done was let his blood rush to his head and go wild. Without noticing (or maybe he had noticed and was secretly enjoying) Godou's discomfort, Lexus continued:

"However, it seems with your victory over the Divine Saint you have ascended to a realm where it would be impudent to make you a member of the church. In other words, you are now someone like Ferrex. A powerful person we would have on our side rather than against us. Thus, you will gain the same title as him. I will not let you refuse."

**You have gained a new title: Benefactor of the Order of Freya**

**Grants unlimited access to all of the Order of Freya's facilities and services including the teleport gate system and the armoury.**

**The Order of Freya must listen to and consider your demands.**

**You cannot refuse quests from the Order of Freya, however, in return, you can receive the aid of the Order of Freya free of charge.**

Godou was taken aback by the benefits of the title. Just who was Lexus's superior to be able to authorise such rewards? Rather timidly, he asked:

"Is it really necessary to give me all this?"

And received the response:

"Why of course. Others would question it if we did anything otherwise."

[Just accept the fact that you're not ordinary already.]

Seeing Godou's confusion, Lexus suddenly added:

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed how differently people with the faith stat have been interacting with you since you beat the Divine Saint."

Godou had indeed noticed a change in the way priests and such had spoken to him. But then again, there were other religious members like Lexus and Ferrex who could still speak with him normally so he hadn't thought much about it.

"So it was all subconscious then huh…"

"What?"

Godou was really starting to become confused about where the conversation was headed. Seeing this, both Lexus and Ferrex started to explain to him in turn.

"You know, currently you are emitting out a divine aura which makes people with a low faith stat either want to fear or worship you. Your current class and race seems pretty abnormal right now yet it also seems like it has room to grow. Maybe there's a further class advancement for you as well… though the conditions to unlock it must be pretty severe…"

As Lexus started muttering off topic to himself, Ferrex took over.

[The aura Lexus is taking about refers to your affinities. For example, a fire mage would have a slight aura of fire while a priest would have a holy aura or an aura of light. Then again there are also different types of auras for the warrior classes and some species like dragons have their own types of auras as well so it's really too complicated to be divided into just elemental affinities.]

"But wouldn't churches have divine auras then or something?"

[Nope. No matter how powerful a supporter of a God or Goddess becomes, they will never exceed the realms of a holy aura. What you have is something which is only seen when a god manifests to speak to its supporters.]

Was he really that amazing? Godou didn't feel any different from before.

[Your class is that of an Overlord. That is a term that rings in my memory. I'm pretty sure that was something written about them in one of the old books in the church library.]

Having regained track of the conversation, Lexus suddenly joined in again.

"This book that you're talking about was over 500 years old so I don't know how accurate it is. But now that you mention it, I do recall it saying something about devil lords of chaos capable of killing saints. Well this is coming purely from my speculation again and there are holes in this theory but since you say that this change occurred after you killed the Divine Saint wouldn't it be logical to assume that killing the Divine Saint was the reason why you gained this class. If you look at it this way, Divine Saints are alternately called the Proxies of God. If this new class of yours is the same as in legend, then wouldn't be too farfetched to say that you have become a Saint killing, no a Godslaying Devil yourself."

You're kidding me right? Even when playing a fantasy game everyone has special powers I still manage to become an abnormal monster. Godou really wished the world would stop fucking with him.

Depressed, Godou lost track of the conversation for a few minutes. When he started listening in again, Lexus was giving an in-depth report on the current situation of the monster army approaching the towns.

"… the monster army has already moved in too deep for a force of this size to be able to push them back without the Kallamore Knights so we have to expect a siege. Naidiriv and Tellap are the only large settlements in this area with walls and they are about 100 kilometres apart so all the farmers and villagers nearby are evacuating to them.

However because the towns are so close together the monster force has to siege both cities simultaneously to ensure that one doesn't send reinforcements and attack them from behind. Either that or they have to capture one of the cities on the same day that they arrive there which is pretty hard to do. Our current location, Mt Revils, is about 70 kilometres apart from both towns so it will take about half a day to get there on foot? No probably a bit slower because we have to climb down the mountain

This is quite a bad situation for the Church of Freya as well since most of our members have been just been called to the Plains of Despair. There's only 15 official members of the church left In Tellap, the rest are here and are going to investigate the situation in Naidirv in more detail. On a side note, there are about 30 ungraduated trainees in Tellap as well…"

It was at this moment that a paladin from the Church of Freya walked over to join them. After bowing down to Godou for some reason, the paladin addressed his fellow member of the Church of Freya.

"The soldiers in the army want to get a move along soon. We have decided to guide them back to town. So what will you do Lexus?"

"Ah Vin, apparently the person I was supposed to pass my message onto as one of the foreigners who died. I'm going to have to wait here until she resurrects so that I can complete my duty."

As the paladin left shortly afterwards, Lexus spoke saying:

"Since the distance from here to both towns is the same, you will have to decide which town you want to protect."

Godou took a moment to respond.

"I think I'll go back to Tellap town."

In comparison to his short time in Naidirv, Godou had spent 4 weeks in Tellap had had befriended many of its residents during his stay. Because he had more emotional ties to Tellap, he decided it would become the place he would fight for.

Lexus smiled as if he had already predicted Godou response and simply said:

"Okay. Well as I said before, I'm going to have to stay here for a while so I guess this will be good bye for now."

[Hey why don't you get Lexus to identify your drops before you go?]

Suddenly reminded of the issue of his unidentified drop items from Seirph, Godou called over to Lexus who identified them and returned them saying:

"You sure pick up some interesting things."

Before starting to walk off.

Part 4

As Lexus started to walk away back into the mass of soldiers, Godou decided it was time to raise the question at was bothering him.

"Are you really okay about your current state Ferrex?"

Godou was concerned about that issue. Not matter how fine Ferrex claimed to be, destroying your body and becoming something else was not an easy decision to make. However, continuing to make a brave front to this question was Ferrex's choice.

[What are you talking about? If I'm in this state then I don't have to worry about eating or keeping fit. I don't have to worry about paying taxes when I buy things or paying debts now either.]

[What?]

"I've noticed this before but you really sound like an old geezer at times."

[S Shut up.]

Godou tried to start a conversation again but failed since Ferrex was now sulking and didn't want to respond. Maybe the mental trauma of seeing the Lost Temple of Lou destroyed, losing his body and being called an old man as too much for him to handle. Godou decided to leave him alone at the moment. Instead, he looked at the items that Lexus had just identified for him.

**Divine Ring of Embinyu**

**A substitute staff in the form of a magic ring made by a master spellsmith in the ancient past who used techniques which have now become lost over the passage of time. This ring was custom made with the best materials to channel the vast divine powers of the Divine Saints. Traditionally this ring was given to the current Divine Saint of Embinyu when they awaken as a Divine Saint.**

**Durability: 80/100**

**Restrictions: Divine Saint of Embinyu**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 100 Intelligence**  
**+ 100 Wisdom**  
**+ 10% Magic Resistance**

**The following information is available due to the completion of the Basic Education:**  
**This ring increases the power of magic spells. The effects of this ring do not stack if a staff is equipped.****Sealed Winged Sandals**  
**Magic sandals believed to have been made by a master spellsmith who used techniques which have now become lost over the passage of time. These sandals are hold a massive amount of power but having been lost in a state of neglect over the centuries, its power is severely lessened. These scandals can only be repaired by a master blacksmith. **

**Durability: 59/100**

**Restrictions:**  
**Level 400**  
**High tier church related class**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 50 Agility**  
**+ 100 Luck**  
**+ 10% Magic Resistance**  
**You are immune from fall damage**  
**Your footsteps make no sound**

Wow. No matter how he looked at it, these items were well beyond his ability to equip right now.

"Status Window"

Godou opened his status window for the first time since defeating Seirph and saw that it was now vastly different from the last time he checked.

**Character Name:****Godou**

**Alignment:****Chaos**

**Level:****136**

**Class:****Overlord**

**Race:****Breaker of the Divine Decree**

**Title:****Benefactor of the Order of Freya**

**Fame:****245062**

**Notoriety:****14950**

**Health:****4457**

**Mana:****2144**

**Strength:****77 +83**

**Agility:****78 +73**

**Wisdom:****75 +70**

**Intellect:****75 +70**

**Leadership:****9+70**

**Luck:****266 +70**

**Vitality :****93 +70**

**Perseverance:****117 ****+70**

**Sustenance:****104 +70**

**Fighting Spirit****497 +70**

**Honour****13 +70**

**Divinity****100 +70**

**Attack:****94**

**Defence****48**

**Magical Resistance:****44%**

**Unallocated Stat Points:****595**

**Class Bonuses**  
**+ 20 to all stats**  
**+ 200 Health **  
**+ 200 Mana**  
**+ 20% Magic Resistance**  
**+ able to use magic**  
**+ there is no penalty when the skills and spells you use fail**  
**+ can equip all armours and weapons regardless of restrictions on class, level and stats.**  
**+ immune to from the effects of most heals, buffs, curses, potions and poisons **  
**+ harder to improve intimacy with members of religions. Church members may fear or worship you**  
**+ penalty upon death is doubled**  
**+ half of the experience gained will go to your Divine Control Mastery.**

**Other Bonuses**  
**Recognised by Church of Freya**  
**+ 50 to all stats due to titles**  
**+ 10% Magic Resistance due to titles**  
**+ 13 Strength**  
**+ 3 Agility**  
**+ 5% Magic Resistance**

His magic resistance had jumped exponentially, he race and class had changed and he had a new stat called Divinity as well. He seemed to also have gained stat bonuses due to titles as well. He also had 595 unallocated stat points.

Godou wondered where he should place them. His current physical abilities were more or less fine for him.

Sighing, Godou opened the information windows for these new changes.

**Titles:****The Amateur who did the Impossible**

**+ 20 to all stats**

**+ 10% Magic resistance****The Destructive Saviour**  
**+ 30 to all stats**

**Grants access to skill: Collateral Damage****Benefactor of the Order of Freya**  
**Grants unlimited access to all of the Order of Freya's facilities and services including the teleport gate system and the armoury.**

**The Order of Freya must listen to and consider your demands.**

**You cannot refuse quests from the Order of Freya, however, in return, you can receive the aid of the Order of Freya free of charge.**

"Divinity Stat information"

**Divinity**

**You have obtained the transcended might to perform acts close to miracles. The power of your divine abilities is dependent on this stat. As this stat grows, the overall power of your other stats and abilities increase. Directly affects your total mana, mana regeneration and magic resistance. You can distribute level up bonus points for this stat. In the case of some classes, a Divine Aura will be emitted from you.**

Well that more or less explained the divine aura Lexus and Ferrex had been going on about. Since Godou had started checking out the changes that had occurred to him, he figured he should go all the way and check his skills as well.

"Skill list"

**Cooking Mastery Beginner 1 (17%)**

**Identification Beginner 1 (3%)**

**Handicraft Beginner 1 (3%)**

**Mana Weapon Creation Beginner 3 (2%)**

**Sword Mastery Beginner 4 (1%)**

**Throwing Weapon Mastery Beginner 2 (68%)**

**Overpowering Will Beginner 1 (13%)**

**Rallying Call Beginner 1 (5%)**

**Survival Instinct Beginner 1 (10%)**

**Might of the Ruler Beginner 1 (4%)**

**Heretic Decree: Unknown (? %)**

**Divine Control Mastery Beginner 5 (56%)**

**Collateral Damage Beginner 1 (0%)**

"Recently Learnt Skill information"

**-Overpowering Will (Passive) Beginner Level 1**

**Your determination to do the impossible allows your battle spirit to overcome your limits. **

**You can temporarily exceed your physical limitations in battle and ignore the effects of your opponent(s) fighting spirit and MORALE. **

**Your fighting spirit will continually rise in battle. Stamina consumption and hunger will increase for the next few days afterwards due to pushing your body beyond its limit.**

** Activates automatically depending on your mental state.**

**-Rallying Call Beginner Level 1**  
**Empowers your words allowing you to motivate and invigorate your allies. The effects depend on your ability to manipulate your audience. **

**Restrictions: Can only be used when nearby allies are in a state of declining MORALE or DESPAIR.**

**Cost: 20 **

**-Mana****Survival Instinct (Passive) Beginner Level 1**

**It is said that a cornered beast is many times more dangerous than a normal one. An adrenaline rush surges through your body causing your ability to deal damage to increase as your condition worsens. As this skill grows your ability to perceive danger will sharpen. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.**

**-Might of Ruler Beginner Level 1**

**You have denied the power of higher beings. Inflict psychological pressure on your opponents**  
**Shatters illusions and dispels magic/buffs. Fighting spirit increases proportional to the power of the strongest opponent present. This skill activates automatically depending on your actions.**

**-Heretic Decree: Unknown**

**A Heretical Divine Decree that has yet to take form as a useable skill. It will transform into something useful according to your desires during a time of crisis.**

**-Divine Control Mastery Beginner Level 5**

**Directly related to the potency of your divine powers. The experience you gain from killing weaker enemies is severely lessened while experience you gain from fighting stronger enemies is amplified. All experience gained through completing quests will go to your Divine Control Mastery instead. **  
**+ 100 Divinity**

**-Collateral ****Damage Beginner Level 1 **

**Increases the power of attacks with multiple targets and increases the damage caused by splash damage. **

**Has a 1% chance to follow up an AOE attack with a copy of the original attack. Activates automatically (this effect is not optional).**

**+ 10% size of AOE**

**+ 5% splash damage**

Godou took a while to digest this information and then sighed with exasperation. Why was it that nearly all the new skills had activation requirements of some kind?

Though now that he had read his class bonuses which said "can equip all armours and weapons regardless of restrictions on class, level and stats" he now knew that it was indeed possible for him to use the equipment he had gotten from Seirph.

Without further ado, he equipped the ring and replaced his now battered leather boots with the more comfortable scandals.

Ding!

**Having been stimulated by your Divine Aura, some of the divine essence in the Sealed Winged Scandals has taken form in the shape of a useable skill. **

**Would you like to learn this skill?**

The heck? Such a thing could happen. Unsure of what to do next, Godou just went with the flow.

"Sure."

**You have learnt a new skill: Divine Wind Decree**

**Having been stimulated by your Divine Aura, the nature of the Sealed Winged Scandals has been changed.**

So I somehow managed to gain another new skill huh.

Godou scanned the scandals information again.

**Sandals of the Messenger God: Talaria **

**Magic sandals made by a godly spellsmith who used techniques which are likely to be never unravelled. These sandals are believed to be created as part of a set of God Armour but due to the rest of the set having been lost over time its power is severely lessened. Having been stimulated by a divine aura, some of this power has been retained. These scandals will repair themselves gradually in the presence of a divine aura. **

**Durability: 60/100**

**Restrictions:**  
**Level 700**  
**High tier church related class**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 50 Agility**  
**+ 100 Luck**  
**+ 500 Mana**  
**+ 10% Magic Resistance**  
**You are immune from fall damage**  
**Your footsteps make no sound**  
**Your jumping ability has been greatly enhanced.**  
**Your comprehension of the skill Divine Wind Decree has been raised to the maximum possible level. (Skill proficiency can still be gained normally.)**

For some reason I think I've suddenly become overpowered again.

Trying to escape the horde of negative thoughts about to overwhelm him, Godou looked that the information on the new skill.

**-Divine Wind Decree (Comprehension 100%) **

**An Overlord's Divine Decree which grants access to powers transcending mortal bounds. **

**Cost: 1000 Mana**

**Max duration: 3 hours **

**Overall Cool down: 24 hours**

**Divine Wind Decree grants access to the following skills when active:**  
**Teleport **

**Body of Wind**

**-Storm Summoning Ritual [Locked]**

**This skill cannot be used in conjunction with other Divine Abilities.**

**The following information is available due to the completion of the Basic Training:**  
**The amount of power you can access is directly related to your Divinity, your comprehension of the skill and your overall Divine Control Mastery.**

The description of the skill felt strangely familiar for some reason. Since the skill didn't have any restrictions on activation, he decided to test it out.

"Divine Wind Decree"

**The Divine Wind Decree has been successfully activated. **

**Due to your high level of skill comprehension, an activation incantation is not required. Divine Wind Decree will go on cooldown if you run out of mana.**

**+ 8% to all stats**

**The following skills are available: **  
**Teleport Advanced Level 10**  
**Body of Wind Advanced Level 10**  
**Storm Summoning Ritual [Locked]**

Godou noticed an empty bar appearing under his Health, Mana and Stamina. He tried to open up an information window on the new bar and received the following information:

**Divine Tolerance Gauge**

**This gauge appears each time you activate a Divine Decree and is representation of the stress caused by the use of your divine powers. The capacity of the gauge is equal to on your Divinity. The rate at which the gauge fills up is dependent on your actions. The bar will deplete slowly over time.**

** When the gauge is completely filled, all Divine Decrees will go on cool down and penalties may be applied.**

He opened the skill information window for all the skills he could access using Divine Wind Decree.

**Teleport **

**Move instantly to a location within your line of sight or to a person/place that you have physically encountered.**

**Cost: 20 Mana**

**Cool Down: 1 Minute****Body of Wind **

**Cover yourself in an aura of divine wind to greatly enhance your speed and explosive power. Will cause an increasing strain on your divine tolerance the longer it is used. Can only be used once each time Divine Wind Decree is active.**

**Cost: 1000 Mana per second**

**Max current duration: 15 seconds****Storm Summoning Ritual [Locked]**  
**This skill requires a Divinity Stat of at least 1000 to be used. Would you like to see more details?**

Godou looked around. The soldiers in the army were starting to file back down the mountain under the guidance of the Church of Freya. Some of them took out teleport scrolls to travel back to the town immediately.

Godou walked around and found an empty area of space for him to test out his new skills. Teleport sounded straight forward to use and he couldn't even use the third skill yet so Godou decided to try out the second skill first.

"Body of Wind"

**Body of Wind has successfully activated. Your speed and explosive power has been greatly enhanced.**

** A divine aura of wind is being emitted from you.**

As he muttered the skill name, his surroundings were blown into a situation of chaos. Strong winds blew around him, uprooting trees, blowing dust in the air. It was like being in the eye of a typhoon.

The wind gathered and covered him completely, transforming him into a storm the shape of a human.

Godou tried to take a step forward, in the corner of his vision he saw his Divine Tolerance Gauge rapidly filling up.

Boom!

Feeling himself being unexpectedly propelled forwards with incredible force, Godou was blown about 100 metres away from his starting position. A line of destruction could be seen between his starting and end points like the path of a hurricane.

**You have used up all your mana. **

**Due to your class attributes, there is no mana rebound. **

**Divine Wind Decree has gone on cool down. **

**Due to high skill comprehension, no penalty has been incurred.**

This inhumanly large step of his had also caused him to step off the mountain.

In other words, he was now in free fall.

From the top of a mountain.

"Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

[Such amazing explosive power… the moment I take my eyes of you, this sort of unparalleled destruction happens.]

"H How can you be so calm in this situation!"

[I am now classified as an item. I won't die from falling off a mountain…]

"Y You- "

Godou watched helplessly as the ground rapidly approached him while listening to Ferrex's heartless(?) words. He braced himself for the impact of the fall.

But it didn't come.

[Plus don't you have fall damage immunity now?]

Godou landed on the ground as if he had only jumped off a low height. Belatedly he remembered the fall damage immunity bonus he had from his new equipment.

"P Please say that sooner! Thank god I equipped those scandals on before I tried out that skill. Seriously, this is the sort of skill you should never use inside a city."

Despite being active for no longer than a few seconds, Godou's Body of Wind skill had caused all sorts of damage and also caused the Divine Wind Decree to go on cool down. It seemed that this was the limit that Godou could test out his new skill with his current level of divinity.

Pushing that thought away, Godou brought out the bigger concerns he had to think about.

The most important being the question: Where the hell was he now?

Looking around after having accidently "jumped" of the top of the mountain, Godou found himself in the middle of an unfamiliar forest near the side of the mountain.

"Lexus said that Mt Revils was half a day's walk from Tellap so I guess I would eventually get there if I travel in the direction of the town then."

[Ah… I think you jumped off the wrong side of the mountain though… to get back to Tellap now you'll have to go around the mountain which should take you an extra day or two.]

[…]

"Considering that I think it would be better to just camp here and wait for Divine Wind Decree's cool down to wear off and teleport directly into town."

[…]


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

The Black Stone Knight charged once again.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Its heavy footsteps echoed in the secret boss chamber as it rapidly closed in on him, shield first. Seeing it draw close to him unexpectedly, Satoshi started laughing.

RAWWAAHHH!

"AHAHAHAHAHA… Come at me bro!"

Royal Road was the first ever Virtual Reality Game with a realism factor so high that the virtual world was almost indistinguishable from reality.

This was all nice and all but when you think about it having high realism in a game was also pretty bad. The starting mobs were so lifelike that an ordinary person couldn't help but feel guilty about hunting them while other monsters looked like the stuff that would come out of horror movies.

For example, this Black Stone Knight.

In terms of its appearance, it was a suit of armour including a helmet with a visor that only allowed the eyes to be seen. Well, that would be the case if the Black Stone Knight actually had any eyes.

Let me elaborate, the suit of armour was completely hollow.

There was nothing inside it.

Well, except for the eerie red lights glowing through the gaps in the armour.

If he had to make a comparison, Satoshi would have said that this boss monster looked a lot like Berserker from the Fate/Zero anime. With a sword and shield that is accompanied by a ghastly breathing sound that vaguely resembled Darth Vader's.

Though the question of why such a monster with no interior body would make such sounds was largely unknown. Nevertheless, it did add an air of mystery around the creature.

Thus, as the one fighting such a monster with flickering lighting in a room which only had one visible exit, Satoshi was certain that he would have nightmares about this fight later on. On the upside, after the nightmare season had pasted, the Scary Movie dream versions would start. Probably.

That was just the way his mind worked. Completely ordinary right?

Speaking of which, Satoshi's appearance wasn't exactly normal either. Appearing to be in his late teens or early twenties with intelligent face and wearing a white long coat, Satoshi seemed to be the sort of person you would expect to see in a science lab than in a dungeon fighting monsters.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to consider any further this because the Black Stone Knight was about to cleave him in half. Evasive actions!

Reacting quickly with movements that liked like they had been rehearsed, he flicked a white ball which had somehow appeared in his empty hand into the space between the Black Stone Knight's shield and chest plate.

At the same time, he activated an Explorer's movement type skill to launch himself backwards shuddering as he saw the Black Stone Knight's Blade draw close to him.

Different people have different ways of hunting in Royal Road. There were some players with blood knight personalities who would look forward to live combat with relish.

There were also people who tried to imitate their idols and media characters as well. If he had gotten a copper for every time he saw someone charge out and yell "Rasengan!" or "Kamehameha!" then he probably would have made quite a few gold coins by now.

On the upside, he could only ever remember one person trying to use "Oppai Power". Hah… now that had been an amusing scene.

However, having the mentality of a completely normal person, Satoshi was not one of these battle maniacs.

Pain was pain no matter how you cut it. The ingrained fear of getting hurt was an important part of human nature that allowed them to survive for so long. Fear of pain was the main reason why human first developed and continued to improve ranged weaponry.

Thus fighting an agile, armoured monster in a cave with flickering lighting was more than enough to put Satoshi's nerves on the edge. However, being a player of Royal Road since the very beginning he did have coping methods for this fear.

The sword of the Black Stone Knight suddenly came to a stop in front of him, its tip a few centimetres away from his face. Close call.

Guh…

"HAH! Were you expecting that kind of shitty charge to work? This ain't some shitty turn based battle you know!"

Satoshi's trick was simple really. All he had to do was remind himself that this was all virtual and then his sense of fear would turn to exhilaration.

Sounds simple doesn't it?

Unfortunately, this technique was also one of those clichéd skills which were hard to apply in practice.

Look at it this way, if a bear suddenly attacks you in real life would you be able to stay calm and recite the alphabet backwards?

If an alien appears and tries to abduct you would you be able to recall the list of all the anime you were planning to watch this season?

So if some monster with 100% realism was about to attack you would you be in the right state of mind to break the 4th wa- I mean remind yourself that it was all viritual?

Thus, in the end, Satoshi resorted to just doing something he would never do in reality to remind himself this was a game.

Namely, role playing.

When an enemy is about to attack you or when you're in a crisis… just laugh it off. Laugh like a lunatic to calm down your thoughts and unnerve the enemy. Satoshi had found that trick quite useful trying to focus his mind at the beginning of a battle. It was due to this habit that people have said that he becomes a completely different person when fighting against monsters.

"…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…."

The white ball had quickly expanded with a glow of white light, taking the shape of a suit of white stone armour with a shield and sword which blocked the Black Stone Knight's attack and pushed back a few steps from its sudden appearance.

It was a White Stone Knight!

No, more accurately, it was a Golem Stone Knight Satoshi had made with the monsters in this dungeon as a model. It was also without a doubt, a lot weaker than the Black Stone Knight in all areas as well.

Another trick he found useful when fighting monsters was conducting research. It was thanks to this habit of his that he became quite reputable in the information guilds.

If you know your enemies strengthens and weakness then you will have an inkling of what to expect and what to avoid.

If they don't like fire then they were probably used to a wet environment or had affiliation with the forest.

If they don't like water then you could probably expect fire, ground or rock attacks.

If they don't like tentacles then… well, let's not go there.

About a month ago (in-game time) he had entered this dungeon, the Cavern Pass, with a party he had met at the entrance.

Back then, he had concluded from the information he had gathered beforehand that the monsters in the dungeon would be highly resistant to physical attacks and thus would be ill suited for the party which was full of physical attackers. He (kindly) advised the party to give up but they had rejected his advice after hearing that his class was an alchemist and charged in blindly.

Sure enough, that party ended up getting slaughtered by the first mob they ran into. Which was a Stone Knight, a weaker version of the boss he was currently facing.

Since then, Satoshi had advanced ahead alone and explored the dungeon, mapping it out and conducting research on the only type of mob found in the dungeon, namely the Stone Knights.

This said research involved kidnaping... er borrowing a few of the Stone Knights and conducting a series of inhuman, I mean, interesting experiments of them such as submerging them in water to seeing if they could drown, pouring acid on them, dropping them from a height, dissecting them, hitting them with blunt objects, testing their fire resistance… etc.

Cough… cough… speaking of which this was something else he would never do in reality. Illegal experiments that would surely violate human/monster/animal rights.

All this research had been jotted down at the time of course. In the end he had organised it into something like this:

**Monster Type: Stone Knight**

General information:  
Only monster found in Cavern Pass  
Rocky colourings  
Appear to similar to animated golems.  
Appear to be hollow  
Drop useful material and reagents for golem making  
Does not like it when you kidnap them and shove things inside of them (internal damage?)  
Attracted by flowers  
Mostly silent mobs apart from their foot steps  
Can be further divided into "normal" and "special" types.

**Capabilities:**  
"Normal" types  
Appear to have high physical attack resistance, high attack damage but low mobility  
It is hard to change their attack target when aggroed  
No ranged attacks  
Large aggro range  
Wire traps don't work on them.  
Have a habit of bowing before starting to attack you  
Low intelligence  
Do not conduct electricity well

**"Special" types**  
Appear to have the capabilities of normal types + some enhanced abilities. These are semi/mini bosses.  
Can be further divided into 4 types:  
Type 1 – has high agility and attack power in addition to the abilities of "normal" Stone Knights  
Type 2 – has higher attack and defence than "normal" Stone Knights in addition to the abilities of "normal" Stone Knights  
Type 3 – has higher intelligence than "normal" Stone Knights and has the ability to spawn "normal" Stone Knights in addition to the abilities of "normal" Stone Knights When this type of Stone Knight is destroyed, all summoned Stone Knights will be destroyed as well.  
Type 4 – has all the abilities of the types listed above? Only example appears to be the boss. The boss will be hearby named Black Stone Knight (due to different colouring)

**Weaknesses:**  
Does not appear to breathe but movements will slow down when they are filled up with water from the inside  
Relatively vulnerable to blunt and piercing damage (impractical to exploit due to high physical defence)  
Dissolves in Acid  
Appears weak to most magic (particularly ice and earth magic)  
Fall damage  
Low AI compared to other monsters of the same level

Eventually, he found the entrance to the boss room which, like batman's hideout, was a cave behind a waterfall and conducted a few test runs on the Black Stone Knight boss monster to scout out its capabilities.

It turns out that aside from its high physical and magical defence, damage and agility, this boss monster also had another annoying ability as well. However, considering the drawbacks of those abilities, Satoshi didn't think he was in a position to complain.

His current run would be the last. His inventory was already almost full of the magical reagents dropped by the Stone Knights so all that was left was the Black Stone Knight. The high grade potions of Fire resistance and Ice resistance he drank beforehand would wear off in about 5 minutes so he had to hurry this up.

Okay. No more goofing around, this is the serious bit.

Satoshi braced himself for the moment the Black Stone Knight would unleash it other ability.

Seeing the addition of another enemy, the Black Stone Knight detached its magic resistant shield and stabbed it's one handed long sword into the shield point first and kneeled.

Guuaaww!

Registering this signal, Satoshi ordered his Golem Stone Knight to guard the exit which was behind the Black Stone Knight, making more white balls appear in his hands and taking out a small potion bottle as he did so. Having the correct timing in the next few moments was crucial.

The ability that the Black Stone Knight was about to use was not one of those attacks that bosses suddenly use when their health falls below a certain level. In terms of health, the Black Stone Knight probably had over 80% left. This was an ability that the Black Stone Knight only used when facing more than one opponent.

Patterns suddenly appeared glowing on the floor, around the Black Stone Knight, permanently lighting up the darkness.

Then with a flash...

…the room was filled with monsters.

No more accurately, the Black Stone Knight transmuted its shield into 14 other Stone Knights, 6 of them being "special" Stone Knights in a formation with the "special" Stone Knights appearing next to the Black one and the 8 "normal" Stone Knight appearing in front of them.

This set up was similar with the initial set up of chess pieces with the Black Stone Knight being in both the King and Queen positions with the ordinary Stone Knights acting as the pawns.

And it was in the moment exactly before the summoning occurred that Satoshi made his move.

Activating his movement type skill again, he rushed in front of Black Stone Knight which was still kneeling down and summoned 6 golems in the middle of the summoned Stone Knight formation, separating the Black Stone Knight from the rest of the Stone Knights.

These golems were bulker and older models than the Golem Stone Knight which was recently made so Satoshi didn't believe they had the ability to defeat the Stone Knights.

However, they had high defences that almost matched the Stone Knights so he believed that they would be able to hold out for at least 45 seconds.

Without thinking deeply any further, Satoshi side stepped the kneeling Black Stone Knight ran for the exit, smashing a splash potion of vulnerability on it as he brushed past it.

Thud!

The Black Stone Knight leap after him, its horrifyingly high agility almost allowed it to catch him before the Golem Stone Knight blocked its advance in time for Satoshi to dive at the exit covered by a waterfall.

On the outside of the boss room was a knee-deep pond. Directly at the entrance was a raging waterfall.

Satoshi ran through the waterfall, slipping slightly on the pond. With haste he activated his movement skill again to move to the side of the waterfall. The territorial range of the Black Stone Knight was unusually large for a boss which allowed him to exploit its weaknesses.

Splash!

There was a loud splash as something flew out of the waterfall sooner than he expected. Satoshi caught an glimpse of his Golem Stone Knight lying in the pond, missing both arms. No matter, this was within range of his margin of error.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

As he heard the Black Stone Knight approach, Satoshi quickly grabbed 3 vitals of liquid from quick slots on his belt and bound them together.

Thud! Splash! Now!

As the Black Stone Knight became drenched with water at the exit, Satoshi plunged his hand into the waterfall and yelled:

"Construct: Freeze, Burn, Oscillate, Water Potion Cast!"

Rapid explosions of ice erupted from the waterfall striking both Satoshi and the Black Stone Golem. Long shards of ice continuously formed on the waterfall like blooming flowers, shattering only to instantly reform again.

**You lost 123 Health**

**You lost 245 Health**

**You lost 164 Health**

**You lost 201 Health**

It must have been a spectacular sight. Probably something akin to a fireworks display or a flashy game character's ulti.

Unfortunately, just like the person on the receiving end of a 100 hit combo ultimate attack, Satoshi was too busy gritting his teeth to endure the pain from frozen and struck by ice spikes to care about it.

The Black Stone Knight which had been at the centre of the attack, in an even worse condition than Satoshi though.

Due to being hollow, it suffered from internal as well as external damage as well. The rapid attacks from ice stunned it and prevented it from moving until the bombardment of blooming ice spikes stopped.

Satoshi spent a minute like that, frozen to the waterfall watching his health slowly but surely drop before the effects of his Potion Casting finally stopped.

At the end of this interval, the Black Stone Knight, having endured far more abuse than it should have, collapsed and crumbled.

**Level Up!**

**Level Up!**

**Level Up!**

**Level Up!**

Panting and shivering from being drenched, Satoshi collected the drops from the Black Stone Knight, and made his way cautiously back through the waterfall and into the boss room, his armless Golem Stone Knight following behind him.

Satoshi quickly relaxed as he saw the room now empty except for 2 of his surviving golems and 14 piles of loot.

It seems like these summoned Stone Knight still had the trait of self-destructing when the summoner is killed.

"Well that went according to plan…"

Filled with the relief that it was finally over, Satoshi collapsed and lay on the floor, resting for a bit.

Potion Casting.

That along with his golems, and trap setting, that skill had become an integral part of his fighting style.

What he did was something both simple and complex. Something that could only be done in a game like Royal Road where the virtual world obeyed the laws of the physical world.

It was a magic art belonging to the Spellsmith Alchemist class that could only be truly used by someone knowledgeable about the real world.

Magic was defined as the act of structuring mana into circles to cause phenomena. Following that train of thought, the attack he directed that the Black Stone Knight should have been classified as a 4 layered magic spell.

Mages have to construct magic circles through incantations to cast spells. However, what he did was different.

Potion Casting.

This was the ability to amplify the potency of magical reagents and use them as substitute magic circles. In other words, the ability to cast proxy magic spells.

According to reliable sources, this was a type of ancient magic, meaning that as opposed to "modern" magic spells which were the product of hundreds of years of research and experimentation, Potion Casting was more dangerous.

Potion Casting wasn't without rules either.

The higher the number of layers in the circle he was trying to cast the higher quality of the reagents had to be.

The higher the grade of the magical reagent, the stronger the proxy magic spell. However, this also meant that low grade reagents resulted in weaker spells.

Also, he had to be careful about what reagents he mixed together because the intended effect and the actual result can be disastrously different.

The reagents used in the Potion Casting were also consumed in the proxy magic spell so he couldn't infinitely cast devastating magic spells with it.

There were also a few other factors he had to consider which stopped him from inventing new spells with Potion Casting in live combat.

Normally, casting a 4 circle spell required at least multiple mages synchronised with each other and/or a very lengthy incantation as well as an absurd amount of mana.

As opposed to this, Satoshi only needed four reagents, all his remaining mana and 3 seconds to cast his spell. Clearly, this indicated that when used properly, Potion Casting could be more powerful and versatile than orthodox magic. Of course an orthodox 4 circle spell could be a lot more damage then he could ever do but still...

The four things he used were:

1. Splash Potion of Freezing III  
Potion Casting amplified the power of the potion and converted it to a magic circle for an Ice attributed spell. This was the first layer to the magic circle.

2. Splash Potion of Burning I  
Same as the Splash Potion of Freezing. The potion was converted into a magic circle for a Fire attributed spell. This was the second layer of the magic circle.

3. Oscillation catalyst  
To prevent the two potions from cancelling each other out an oscillation catalyst was added to the mixture. This catalyst prevented both potions from activating at the same time, instead alternating between their effects at a rapid pace. Additionally, it sped up and amplified the effects of the two potions. This was the third layer to the magic circle.

4. Water  
This was the medium for the magic circle and thus the damage dealing component. This was the final layer to the spell.

The explained result:  
As the Black Stone Knight walked into the waterfall, water seeped into its body.

As the Potion Casting took effect, the water was rapidly frozen, thawed and refroze, continuously dealing damage.

Unlike most other liquids which become "smaller" when they solidify, water is a substance that expands in volume as it turns into ice.

Thus as the water in the hollow Knight froze, it expanded, causing stress and creating cracks in its armour.

Shortly afterwards, the ice was melted back into a liquid form, only to filled up the cracks again.

Then the water froze. The ice forced more cracks to form and the existing cracks to expand.

The ice melted. The water seeped into the enlargened crack.

The water froze. The cracks grew larger.

The ice melted. The water froze…

A continuous loop that ran until all the reagents were consumed was created.

And then there's the side where you have to consider the game mechanics as well.

The Black Stone Knight was weak to ice magic so it took damage from making contact will the spell.

During the process of the spell, the Black Stone Knight became stunned which doubled any further damage it received in this instance.

There was also the fact that he had waited for the Black Stone Knight to discard its source of its magic resistance, its shield before conducting his attack.

And there was also the fact that it was affected by the splash potion of vulnerability he had thrown on it which doubled any damage it received.

It was through the combination of all these factors that Satoshi was able to, as a level 133 player, almost one shot a boss monster almost twice his level. This might sound impressive but it had taken him a week's worth of potion brewing, scouting and preparation to conduct.

After he had sufficiently recovered his health and stamina, he got up, straightened his glasses and took a look at the loot dropped from the boss and its summons. The majority of it were crafting items and magical reagents. There was a strangely shaped key as well but he decided to look at it later.

After using his identification skill on all the drops, Satoshi put as much as he could into his inventory and sorted out the remaining drops which he used to repair his surviving golems. He looked hopefully at his 4 destroyed golems but saw with dejection that their cores had been damaged beyond repair.

Having done as much as he could, he reverse summoned his golems and started looking around the boss room in case it had another hidden room or door. He didn't have to look for long. Directly opposite to the entrance was an inconspicuous door which he hadn't noticed in his previous runs on the Black Stone Knight. Maybe it only appeared when the Black Stone Knight was defeated.

The door was the same colour as the walls and had a strangely shaped keyhole.

After carefully using his trap scanning skill on the door, confirming that it was free of traps, Satoshi tried to push the door open but it didn't budge. Figures. Obviously there was no such thing as an unlocked door in this kind of dungeon.

He was about to resort to picking the lock on the door when he remembered the key that was dropped by the boss.

He took it out and shoved it in the keyhole. A perfect fit. How convenient. Moreover, what a lazy development. It was almost as if the person who wrote this scenario couldn't be bothered to add an extra secret stage after beating the boss. (Author: *Sweat*)

As he turned the key and opened the door, the key suddenly glowed and dissipated. Looks like it was a one way ticket.

He looked beyond the door and saw a circular room with a gem in the middle of it. Circular patterns of runes surrounded the gem.

Looking at it, Satoshi could only find one way to describe the room.

Suspicious…

There was no way this room wasn't booby trapped.

Yep. Without a doubt, this was one of those times you see in movies and anime when something is definitely going to happen if I touch that gem. Maybe a giant rolling boulder or something is going to pop out. Or maybe some kind of gooey glue is going to gush out leaving me to be captured by a tribe of ancient fire benders.

That thought ran in Satoshi's mind as he stood in the door way.

He scanned the walls for any signs of hidden doors or weapons which would inevitably activate when he entered the room. There were none.

Cautiously, he took a step into the room and quickly jumped back. Nothing happened.

Well, you can never be too careful.

After confirming that there were no hidden traps about to assault him, Satoshi made his way into the room and entered the magic circle on the floor.

That gem had attracted his interest. Although he didn't intend to take it, he wanted to observe it up close. He wanted to try to discern its composition and if possible, develop a replica.

As his inner mad scientist started to awaken, Satoshi felt the floor inside the rune circle give way by a few centimetres. The symbols on the floor began to glow.

A pressure plate? Ahhhh crap… this is where curiosity kills the cat.

Satoshi readied himself for the sharp jolt of pain that would come when some hidden trap would activate and kill him.

He waited for a moment. The pain didn't come.

Instead, his surroundings flashed and changed dramatically.

Ding!

**[A new quest is available.****Defend the Frontier Towns]**

**A monster army has been spotted close by and appears to be making its way towards the nearby town of Naidiriv. Due to mysterious disappearances of the scouts in Naidiriv, the presence of this army was not detected until a few days previously. **

**A defence army was formed to repel this monster force. However, due to running into some unforeseen circumstances, the defence army has taken large casualties before intercepting the monster army and no longer have the power to stop its advance. **

**Scouts have been sent out to track the progress of the army and have confirmed that the monster army has advanced to far deep into to be stopped before they reach Kallamore's twin frontier towns of Tellap and Naidiriv. **

**Therefore a simultaneous siege of both Tellap and Naidiriv will occur. **

**As someone currently in the town of Tellap, it is your duty to contribute in defending the frontier towns. **

**Estimated time before the monster army reaches Tellap town: 5 hours **

**Difficulty: Unknown**

**Restrictions: **  
**Must have accepted the Defend Naidiriv quest or be in town during the siege period.**

**Penalties:**  
**This quest will fail if one or both of the towns fall to the monster army.**

**Rewards:**  
**To be determined by your contribution in defending Tellap and Naidiriv**

Dafuq just happened?

Satoshi looked around. He seemed to be in a town square of some sort. People, both players and NPCs alike were bustling around hurriedly.

So maybe it wasn't a trap but an old teleportation portal? Then where was he now?

The Kallamore Kingdom?


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

The time spent waiting for the cooldown of Divine Wind Decree seemed uneventful(?) for Godou. Nothing much really happened.

Godou had talked to Ferrex who managed to fill him in on some of the details of the town defence procedures in Tellap and some other trivial information.

He also wandered around for a bit but didn't discover anything remotely important… nor did he somehow manage to do something during the 24 hour time period that would give him a guilty conscience.

Yep, in short, nothing really happened… and he was completely unrelated to the ruckus that had apparently been caused in that part of the mountain range at that time.

Thus in this uneventful(?) atmosphere, Godou inevitably found himself doing some self-reflection.

Despite the fact that he had continuously ended up against challenging opponents who were supposed to have extremely low encounter rates whilst playing Royal Road, Godou still felt strangely relaxed whenever he played the game.

It was only in Royal Road that he didn't find himself being pestered and nagged by his close female friends and sister.

Godou didn't know whether he should be feeling sad about this or not though. Although he didn't really mind their company, he was the type of person would could only truly relax in the company of men.

After all, Godou did not consider himself to be someone used to interacting with members of the opposite sex and there were only some things he could only do with close male friends.

Unlike in reality, he didn't have all those weird rumours circulating around him either. This very fact improved Godou's mood whenever he started playing the game.

Although running into some sort of conflict all the time as rather troublesome, wasn't that the supposed to be the norm when you played this sort of fantasy game?

Actually, that aspect wasn't that really that bad though. Although he regretted the fact that he had briefly loosened the reins of his self-restraint, Godou almost enjoyed the act of defeating a strong opponent and making them suffer for the pain- Hold on a second!

With a jolt of alarm, Godu quickly supressed his thoughts which had been proceeding in a very dangerous direction.

Given how Royal Road gives you a broad range of classes, many of which having nothing to do with actual combat, having to suffer from life and death battles against outrageously strong monsters was definitely not the norm.

That's right! I am pacifist. I don't want to get involved in any more needless conflict!

Despite firmly believing this, contradicting memories of all the problems he had caused, both virtual and real, suddenly came into Godou's mind.

Although, circumstances had forced him to temporarily put aside his pacifism in the past, Godou swore to himself that he would not involve himself in any other future conflicts.

That being said, Godou had full intended to help out in defending Tellap. After all, that town was the home of many innocent people. The pub owner Mark and the members of the local church of Freya who lived in the town were important benefactors for Godou. He couldn't just leave them to fend for themselves.

Although, everyone has the potential to use special powers which should not exist in reality, a game like Royal Road needs to have balance so everyone needs to chip in to produce an effect rather than becoming a one man army right? Thus Godou resolved himself to help how ever he could.

Then, realising the contradiction in his thoughts, Godou became stuck in a bout of depression for the rest of the day.

So after this completely uneventful(?) 24 hours passed, Godou activated Divine Wind Decree once again.

According to Ferrex, it was likely that his power had a similar method of usage to Seirph's method of casting spells. It showed more of a resemblance to the divine powers wielded by gods then spells bounded by magic circles. In short, his powers relied more heavily of how strong his imagination and ability to than visualise what he wanted more than anything else.

Coincidentally, Godou noticed that the first skill that he had learnt, Mana Weapon Creation, was also heavily reliant on this factor.

**The Divine Wind Decree has been successfully activated. **

**Due to your high level of skill comprehension, an activation incantation is not required. Divine Wind Decree will go on cooldown if you run out of mana.**

**+ 38% to all stats**

**The following skills are available:**  
**Teleport Advanced Level 10**  
**Body of Wind Advanced Level 10**  
**Storm Summoning Ritual [Locked]**

**Max Duration: 3 hours**

After reflecting on his limitations on his new skill due to his low Divinity stat, Godou had also decided to place all 595 stat bonus points into his Divinity stat during this 24 hour time frame.

Thus, visualising himself arriving in Tellap, Godou activated the teleport skill.

Godou's body flashed and he immediately found himself in Tellap's town square.

As always, the town seemed as crowded as ever. Although, the atmosphere around the town did not seem particularly hurried, it was noticeable more tense then Godou had ever remembered. That being said, the pubs were still making booming business as the would-be-combatants lounged in the pubs drinking and lowering their tension before the fight.

Ferrex had told Godou that it was the first time in 5 years that the advance army had failed to defeat the monster army before it reached the towns so maybe that was the reason for the tesne atmosphere.

Speaking of which, Ferrex didn't seem to be responding to Godou for a while now. At first Godou had thought that he was still sulking but now he was getting slightly worried.

However, since there was nothing he could do for Ferrex anyway, Godou decided to just leave him be for the moment.

Godou opened up the information of his current remaining quest.

At some point in time the quest had been updated and changed. It now read:

**Quest Update!**

**Due to recent events, the Quest "Defend Naidiriv" has been updated to the Quest "Defend the Frontier Towns"**

**Defend the Frontier Towns**  
**A monster army has been spotted close by and appears to be making its way towards the nearby town of Naidiriv. Due to mysterious disappearances of the scouts in Naidiriv, the presence of this army was not detected until a few days previously.**

**A defence army was formed to repel this monster force. However, due to running into some unforeseen circumstances, the defence army has taken large casualties before intercepting the monster army and no longer have the power to stop its advance.**

**Scouts have been sent out to track the progress of the army and have confirmed that the monster army has now advanced to far deep into to be stopped before they reach Kallamore's twin frontier towns of Tellap and Naidiriv.**

**Therefore a simultaneous siege of both Tellap and Naidiriv will occur.**

**As someone currently in the town of Tellap, it is your duty to contribute in defending the frontier towns.**

**Estimated time before the monster army reaches the closest Town: 5 hours**

**Difficulty: Unknown**

**Restrictions:**  
**Must have accepted the Defend Naidiriv quest or be in town during the siege period.**

**Penalties:**  
**This quest will fail if one or both of the towns fall to the monster army.**

**Rewards:**  
**To be determined by your contribution in defending Tellap and Naidiriv**

Godou tried to manipulate his menu to get more details on what to do next about this quest. He ended up with the following message:

To register as a mercenary or to get more information on the Tellap towns defence procedures, visit the Administration Office next to the soldier barracks.

Come to think of it, Ferrex did say something about this as well.

As Godou asked for directions from nearby passers-by, he tried to recall what he knew about the defence procedures.

Unlike the sporadic defences armies which were formed just to intercept monster raid forces, the defence systems for castle and siege defences were a lot more organised and complicated. The town defenders could basically be divide into three groups: the Royal Kallamore Army, the mercenaries and the milta.

The Royal Kallamore Army was comprised of soldiers who had been formally accepted and trained by the kingdom and had the actual occupation of a soldier. These people were mostly npcs like the regular soldiers, town guards and Kallamore Knights. The Royal Army usually acted as the backbone of the siege defence since they were the group that was the most accustomed to receiving and following orders. Thus, this group had the most stable combat ability out of all 3 groups.

On the other hand the mercenaries were comprised of the fighters who were not part of the Kallamore Army but had registered as a combatant on Kallamore's side. This group was mostly comprised of players and could the same bonuses as the Royal Army as well as a monetary reward depending on their achievements. To join this group, you needed to register yourself by talking to the people in change of the battle as well as a level over 50. The combat ability of this group tended to vary depending on the members.

The milta was basically everyone else who was in the warzone. By default everyone who received the siege defence quest was automatically registered as part of the milta unless they were part of the Royal Army. This group was mostly comprised of the noob players who didn't know about registering as mercenaries or were too low level to join, civilians and other non-combatants.

The milta usually helped out by treating and evacuating injured fighters, bring supplies to the front lines, putting out fires and other various supporting roles in battle. Although they have virtually no combat ability in the face of high level monsters, this group was the most numerous of the three and played a contribution to the outcome of the battle. Thus, this group was able to earn honour points just like the other two groups but did not get paid.

Milta aside, the Royal Army and mercenaries were further divided into groups of 5 or 6 called defence parties. The composition of the party varied according to the number of Royal Army soldiers and mercenaries. Most parties would have only soldiers whilst others would have only mercenaries. However, there would also be some with a mixture of both every here and there.

And that was pretty much all Godou could remember learning from Ferrex and from reading books. Since I'm going there anyway, I might as well register as a mercenary.

In retrospect, Godou found it strange that he had actively decided to trouble himself into trouble. However, with the threat of the monster army just a few hours away, Godou decided to turn a blind eye. Just this once anyway.

After a bit more walking, Godou arrived the soldier barracks. Apparently, the building next to it was the administration office so Godou entered it. Inside the building as a queue of people, no doubt there to do the same thing he was about to. Godou got in line and waited his turn until he was called out by one of the clerks.

The clerk appeared older than Godou but still quite young, probably in her early or mid-twenties. With her lovely face combined with rimmed glasses and her tied up hair style, the clerk reminded Godou of an office worker heroine in some romantic comedy movie or the receptionist of a health clinic advertisement.

If not for her bored looking expression which showed her complete lack of enthusiasm, she would have looked quite adorable.

"Hello. What can I do for you? I take it that you want to register as a mercenary?"

In a neutral tone, the clerk asked.

"Yes please."

"Okay done. Do you want to register in a party with anyone you know or are you fine with just any party?"

"Uhm… Any will do for me."

Godou didn't need to ponder on that question for too long. The only other combatants he was close to was the ice mage Flay and that strange "assassin" girl who called herself Reta. He had seen both of them get killed during Seirph's ambush so it would still take a few more days (in-game) for them to respawn.

"There's a vacancy in the 136th Defence party so I just sign you up there."

Ding!

**You have been placed in the 136th Defence Party.**

**136th Defence Party**

**Members: 5**

**Orders: Remain on standby.**

"Kay. You have been assigned to the 136th Mercenary Party and your initial rendezvous point is the bench closest to [Mark's Pub] on the town square. Make sure you find out where that is and go to that location when the war bells ring."

"War bells?"

Seeing Godou confusion, the clerk continued her explanation:

"There are five large bells on each of the 4 corners of the outer walls and one on the inner walls. The war bells will ring 5 times when the monster army is spotted about 10 kilometres away from town. When the army is 5 kilometres away, the bells will right 10 times. When opposing army is about come in sight or when the walls come under attack, they will ring again continuously for 1 minute. Make sure that you get to the rendezvous point of your party within 15 minutes after the first warning bell rings."

"Hmm okay."

As Godou nodded his understanding, the clerk started another lengthy explanation.

"I guess I should tell you this as well. When the bell rings for the first time, the commander of the Tellap's defence will give a basic briefing on the town defence formations and procedures. Be warned though, this commander is more on the eccentric side than any other NPC I've met so don't expect too much. Then again the NPC who introduced him to me was a bit weird as well."

With those words Godou realised that the clerk was a player like himself. Her expression had been so stiff he had initially thought she was an NPC. Oblivious to Godou's sudden enlightenment, the clerk queried:

"Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"No that will be it. Thank you for your time."

"No problem."

Having finished his business, Godou made his way out of the building. As he walked out, he could have sworn that he heard someone mutter "Sigh… I know I volunteered to do this but my shift should already be over… I want to go play with Misa… God damn it, I better be getting overtime for this!"

Part 2

Thus, having registered as a mercenary and been placed in a Defence Party, Godou found himself at lost at what to do next. After checking the quest notification, he saw that there was still almost 4 hours before the monster army would be in Tellap's sights.

"Hey Ferrex are you there?"

Still not responding then huh. Looks like I'm on my own for a while.

Nervous tension filled Godou's body as he looked around him to see what the other defenders were doing. A few people were running around all over the place like chickens with their heads chopped off. Conversely, Godou also noticed quite a few people just chilling out in pubs as usual.

"That's right. There's no point being stressed out over this. It will happen when it happens so I guess there's nothing else to do but relax and enjoy the peace while it lasts."

Coming to this conclusion, Godou relaxed his body which had unconsciously become tense in the stressful atmosphere.

Thus with time to waste, Godou decided to at least go and say hello to the pub keeper Mark before the battle starts.

With that goal in mind, Godou started to navigate through the large town/small city of Tellap. On his way, he passed the Church of Freya.

Then looking at his tattered and worn clothes and remembering that the new title Lexus had given him allowed him to access the church of Freya's armoury, Godou decided to take a slight detour and pay a visit to the church first.

Godou walked inside the church, greeted the priest in on duty and then queried about whether or not he could access to armoury to replace his equipment. Godou was pleased to note that although the priest had seemed a bit stiff when Godou had talked to him, they didn't try to run away like previously.

Did the title "Benefactor of the Order of Freya" neutralise the scaring effect of his divinity on people with the faith stat?

Godou speculated on this as the priest gave an affirmative response and directed him to the armoury.

Godou walked into the armoury. Since the church of Freya in Tellap town was only one of the side branch churches, it did not contain a lot of high level and rare equipment. Godou didn't have any intention of taking any even if there were any in the armour either. He felt that it would be too greedy if he did.

Because he already had rare and powerful equipment dropped by Seirph, he didn't really have any desire to get any more. He didn't particularly like the feeling of having to wear armour either. Godou didn't seem himself as the type of person who would exploit the crap of a friend or benefactor when given the chance either. His sense of loyalty and morals was too strong to do something like that.

Was this a good thing or a bad thing for someone playing a VR game?

Godou looked for the simple standard issue cloth clothes, basically, the same version of the equipment he was currently wearing. He toyed with the idea of getting armour was well but discarded the thought.

Without further ado, Godou identified the cloth clothes and changed into them directly in the armoury.

**Enchanted Cloth Tunic**

**An enchanted tunic given to the members of the Church of Freya. It has an enchantment embedded in it.**

**Durability:**  
**40/45**

**Restrictions:**  
**Member of the church of Freya OR**  
**Unofficial trainee of the church of Freya**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 20 Defence**  
**+ 5% Magic resistance**  
**+ 5% all Elemental Resistances**

**Enchanted Cloth Leggings**  
**Enchanted leggings given to the members of the Church of Freya. It has an enchantment embedded in it.**

**Durability:**  
**43/45**

**Restrictions:**  
**Member of the church of Freya OR**  
**Unofficial trainee of the church of Freya**

**Bonuses:**  
**+ 20 Defence**  
**+ 5% Magic resistance**  
**+ 5% all Elemental Resistances**

"Waaa!"

CLANG!

Godou heard a frightened squeak behind him accompanied by the metallic sound of a piece of metal armour dropping on the floor.

He spun around and the sight he saw made his heart skip a beat.

A young girl near the corner of the room frantically picked up the suit of armour she had accidentally knocked down, blushing furiously. She seemed about 13 years of age. She appeared very lovely and adorable. Like a kitten that made you want to pat and spoil.

That wasn't the problem though.

Godou felt his face redden as he realised that he had just changed in front of her. A mixture of emotions bombarded him. Panic and self-reprimand for not checking that the armoury was empty before changing.

In front of a young child he had just…

Godou was not one of those people who had an interest in young girls. Not that he had anything against people who did. Thus the reason for why his heart was pounding so fast was because of his shame and regret.

What he did was no doubt a borderline crime. Godou almost felt like turning himself in to the authorities. That's no good! I have to explain myself so that this doesn't develope into a misunderstanding!

"Sorry-"

"S S Sorry. I wasn't trying to peek! I you changed so suddenly- I didn't see any t thing!"

The girl beat Godou to the punch as he was about to apologise. It didn't feel right to him that she was the one to apologise in this situation so Godou decided to act.

"N No. I should be the one to apologise. It was my fault that I didn't check to see if anyone was in the room before changing. I swear didn't mean to do that to a little girl!"

Looking at it afterwards, Godou himself thought that his exclamation sounded like the pleads of a guilty criminal about to be punished.

"L Little… Uhm yeah… I'm seventeen years old."

"Is that so? I never would have guessed."

"Haha yeah I get that a lot…"

With his careless comment, Godou felt very uncomfortable in this sort of situation.

"…"

Damn this is really awkward. What should I do?

Being the teenage male with the number of years without a girlfriend the same as his age, Godou had never really had much luck with members of the opposite sex. Thus, he had no idea what to do to fix this kind of awkward setting. Well, I was quite tactless of me to say that so I should apologise right? But saying thing now is a bit…

Pushing aside his fears, Godou opened his mouth to apologise.

"S-"

BANG!

The door suddenly opened and several members of the church of Freya came to replace their equipment before the siege started. Having lost his moment to apologise, Godou decided that it would be best for him if he simply left under the cover of the new people entering the armoury.

Thus Godou left the church of Freya. No doubt his next meeting with that girl who was apparently seventeen would be extremely awkward.

Okay take a deep breath in. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Godou tried to calm his mind, carefully erasing his recent mistake in the Church of Freya from his memory as he did so.

In order to do so, he tried to distract himself by opening his status window.

**Status Window**

**Name: ****Godou**

**Alignment: ****Chaotic**

**Level: ****136**

**Class: ****Overlord**

**Race: ****Breaker of the Divine Decree**

**Title: ****Destructive Saviour**

**Fame: ****245062**

**Notoriety: ****14950**

**Health: ****6457**

**Mana: ****5390**

**Strength: ****89+80**

**Agility: ****90+120**

**Wisdom: ****87+170**

**Intellect: ****87+170**

**Leadership: ****21+70**

**Luck: ****278+70**

**Vitality: ****139+70**

**Perseverance: ****117+70**

**Sustenance: ****116+70**

**Fighting Spirit: ****509+70**

**Honor: ****25+70**

**Divinity: ****695+70**

**Attack: ****107**

**Defence: ****50**

**Magic Resistance: ****98%**

**Class Bonuses**  
**+ 20 to all stats**  
**+ 200 Health **  
**+ 200 Mana**  
**+ 20% Magic Resistance**  
**+ able to use magic**  
**+ there is no penalty when the skills and spells you use fail**  
**+ can equip all armours and weapons regardless of restrictions on class, level and stats.**  
**+ immune to from the effects of most heals, buffs, curses, potions and poisons **  
**+ harder to improve intimacy with members of religions. Church members may fear or worship you**  
**+ penalty upon death is doubled**  
**+ half of the experience gained will go to your Divine Control Mastery.**

**Other Bonuses**  
**Recognised by Church of Freya**  
**+ 50 to all stats due to titles**  
**+ 10% Magic Resistance due to titles**  
**+ 10 Strength**  
**+ 100 Intelligence**  
**+ 100 Wisdom**  
**+ 100 Luck**  
**+ 50 Agility**  
**+ 1000 Mana**  
**+ 30% Magic Resistance**  
**+ 10% all Elemental Resistances**

Godou noticed his Magic Resistance had another large jump since he had last checked. This was due to him placing all of his level up bonus points into his divinity stat. With a magic resistance of 98% wouldn't that mean that attack magic would have negligible effects on him?

For some reason, the thought of magic spells not affecting him that much seemed very familiar. So this body of mine is nearly invulnerable to magic in both reality and in virtual reality. Great… Just great.

Godou felt another wave of depression creeping up on him but he resisted falling into its clutches. With the siege in only a few hours it was crucial that he kept his own morale up.

Remembering that his new clothes also provided elemental resistance bonuses, Godou manipulated his status window to show his element resistances recalling what he knew about the various resistances stats as he did so.

**Elemental Resistance**

**Fire: ****48%**

**Water: ****48%**

**Earth: ****48%**

**Ice: ****48%**

**Light: ****48%**

**Dark: ****51%**

Magic resistance is resistance against magical attacks which are brought forth through constructions of magic circles and the like. On the other hand, elemental resistance refers to your resistance against the elements which may or may not be natural.

For example, magic resistance will reduce the damage done by a lighting strike spell but it will not do anything against a natural lighting strike. Magic resistance will reduce the damage done by fireballs but it will not stop you from burning to death in a volcano.

Having cleared his mind to a sufficient degree, Godou made his way to Mark's pub.

Part 3

When Godou walked into Mark's pub it was lively as ever. He had almost expected Mark to call out loud as always when he stepped in. However, the loud hearty roar he was expecting didn't come.

Godou looked around the pub and saw Mark deep in conversation with an intelligent looking youth wearing a white long coat.

"… statistics show that on this time the number of people in this target audience is at a peak…"

"I understand but how to I know that your information is credible?"

"That's why I'm giving you this information for free right now to prove my credibility. Further dealings will cost though…"

A portion of Mark's conversation came over to Godou. Since Mark seemed to be in an important business deal, Godou decided to leave his greetings for later.

Instead, Godou went and ordered a drink from one of the workers. Godou noted that the waitress serving him was someone he hadn't seen before.

When Godou had worked at Mark's pub on the first day that he had logged on, there had only been one or two other workers besides him and Mark. Despite all of Mark's negativity about it, Godou though that Mark's pub was actually a pretty popular pub. It was nearly always packed and customers usually bought more than one drink during their time there.

This made it especially hard for the workers to provide adequate service to all customers. To add difficultly to that, many of the other workers only acted in 2 hour shifts. Many of the workers were actually customers who had volunteered to give Mark a helping hand as well. Thus, have worked for almost a whole day in Mark's pub, he was confident that he knew most of the people working there.

This meant that the waitress was someone new. Probably.

Speaking of which, the waitress looked familiar to Godou for some reason. She had lovely brown hair, a voluptuous figure and a serious sort of aura around him. Looking at her diligently work, Godou thought that she appeared absolutely adorable.

Having received his drink, Godou then looked around for a place to sit. Although, he didn't mind standing, he felt standing in a corner drinking by himself would simply be too sad.

"YEAH!"

A loud cry came from on corner of the pub. Godou saw that it came from the corner which was the furthest from the entrance. The spot which had unofficially been reserved for the gambling.

Godou looked at the corner spilt between his curiosity to find out what happened and his common sense which told him to stay away from gambling drunks as well has his past memories of being forced to participating gambling marathons.

In the end curiosity won. Surely these people wouldn't be drinking that much right before a battle, Godou reasoned. Nothing too ridiculous should happen if I go and join them right?

With that hope in mind, Godou entered the territory of the drunk gamblers. Almost immediately, that hope was crushed.

Within seconds, Godou found himself forcefully dragged into the ridiculous recreational activity of gambling.

The first thing that happened to him was he walked over was that he was hugged.

From the front.

By a girl.

Wearing glasses.

Apparently, this was one of the things that were being gambled on. One random person was pick using a spinning empty beer bottle and that person had to hug the first person who walked past them who was not part of the bet.

The betting options were:  
1) Target screams/yells/swears  
2) Target blushes silently  
3) Target does 1 and 2  
4) No reaction from target  
5) Target does something else not listed

Needless to say, Godou's reaction from being hugged by a voluptuous girl slightly older than himself was (3). Shocked that such a ridiculous thing was being gambled on, Godou became dragged into the gambler's pace and was forced to join into the game. As testament of his luck (or not), the random person selector beer bottle never pointed at Godou.

Alsom considering the fact that the majority of the people playing this game were macho men who just wanted to hug people, Godou was actually quite lucky to walk in at that moment.

Conversely, the apparently ring leader of this game (as well as the person who hugged him) as someone Godou knew. It was the bored looking clerk in the administration office who had registered Godou was a mercenary.

However, this time, under the full force of her enthusiasm, she appeared so full of life that Godou could not describe her as anything but adorable. The difference between what the clerk was like when she was on or off the job as certainly like fire and ice. Apparently her name was Lis.

Thus as time passed, Godou noticed a few other things about Lis.

First, that she was actually the older sister the new waitress (whose name was Misa) and that she had been recommended to a position in the Royal Kallamore Army through Mark.

Secondly, she as a massive siscon and would use any excuse possible to make physical contact with her. (Apparently that had been one of the interior motives of the hugging game.)

Seeking a respite from the gambling, Godou moved himself to another location. Godou noticed that a lot of the nearby customers around Mark were listening in to Mark's conversation with interest. Unconsciously, Godou found himself listening in as well.

"How can you be so sure that this will work?"

"Well this information can be deducted by looking that the survey information from players in the kingdoms of the central continent. Even if the date and time are a bit off, this stunt is bound to attract more customers. With your workers it would be a waste not to do it anyway."

"Hmmm…"

"Besides this pub, I have also told all the major competitors similar information was well by the way. Whether or not you chose to follow my information is up to you but if they manage to attract more customers you will be on the losing side of the business you know."

"Tch… this is blackmail… actually no it isn't but it certainly feels like it. No, I still don't believe foreigners would have such interests."

Mark was showing the expression of a playground bully who lost a fight, without wasting his momentum, the other party pressed forward with confidence.

"Want to test it? Pull over the nearest male and female customers and see what they say? Say like… that guy! And her!"

The white coated youth conversing to Mark suddenly pointed over a Godou and the older sister of the bar waitress you just happened to be the current ringleader of the gamblers. Mark turned and dragged out two more seats for them to join the two at the table.

"Fine Godou, Lis, do me a favour and come over here for a bit"

Suddenly, having the spotlight thrown to him, Godou was forced to make his way over.

As soon as he sat down, the white coated youth conversing with Mark suddenly sprang the question on him:

"Do you have a maid fetish?"

"Uhmm… what?"

Why was it that these sorts of things keep happening to me. Not for the first time, Godou wished the world would stop screwing with him.

"Have you ever had dreams about your girlfriend or school idols dressed up in maid uniforms?"

"Of course I …"

Godou was about to deny that he had such interests when an erased forgotten memory suddenly sprung up on him.

Cheep, cheep. The chirping of baby birds could be heard.  
Soft sheets. Shafts of sunlight shone through the windows, it was a calm morning. In the middle of a complete awakening, he was still dozing off hazily―

Nope that never happened. With great force of mind, Godou erased the memory again.

"… no I don't."

"So Mark, how long did it take for him to reply?"

"About 8 seconds I guess"

"From the statistics, that timing is extremely suspicious… Indeed, suspicious."

"What statistics?! That is obviously a blatant lie!"

Hearing these idiotic words Godou couldn't hold himself back. Turning his attention on Godou, the white coated youth mercilessly pressed onwards.

"You cannot lie to the cries of your heart… I take it that you are also a regular visitor of a maid café? I saw a spark of recognition in your eyes when I said that."

Indeed Godou had visited the maid café "The Peerless Statesman" owned by his adopted nephew quite a few times in the past but-

"…there were circumstances for that and it was convenient because I was friends with the owner."

"Ha! There is no doubt that you my friend, are in a state of self-denial. Come release your desires."

As Godou's denials fell onto deaf ears, Godou found himself in situation where he could do nothing but grit his teeth in frustration. In jolt Godou finally realised that he blurted out something he shouldn't have.

"I rest my case."

Smiling, the white coated youth ended the interrogation. There's no doubt about it. This guy is a devil.

Seeing the white coated youth prove his point against Godou, Mark spoke as if he was now seriously considering the youth's idea.

"Well, I run a pub so I can't exactly change it into a maid café like you suggested. Though I guess it would be possible to dress a few of the waitresses in maid outfits for advertisement. Since you only want information in return I guess it could be worth a shot. Lis what's your opinion on this?"

"I'm in! I completely support this idea! fufufu… Maid costume… fufufufu… I finally get to see Misa in a maid costume…"

"So that's what you're after."

Why are drunk people so hard to handle? Actually is it even possible for alcohol to affect your mind in Royal Road?

As Godou lamented on his the eavesdropping members of the pub sudden broke into another uproar.

"I want to see that too!"

"Me too!"

"I support the genius who came up this idea!"

"I approve of this idea!"

Various cries came from customers in various parts of the pub as the contents of Mark's business deal were made public.

"Muhahahaha! Praise me more!"

The white coated youth who was no doubt the mastermind of the scheme stood up and bowed dramatically before this crowd.

Meanwhile, Godou watched this scene, speechless at how quickly the white coated youth was able to escalate matters so easily. These antics made him doubt whether or not the youth was a master of manipulation or just a plain idiot.

Part 4

Shortly afterwards, the leisurely atmosphere in Mark's Pub was then broken by the metallic sound of ringing war bells.

Despite recognising the warning, none of the pub inhabitants moved. Godou noticed this decided to conform to everyone to see what they were waiting for. After all, his party rendezvous point was only just outside of the pub.

He noticed some movement on the town square and saw a small group of soldiers who seemed like officers making their way to the middle of the square.

"What's everyone waiting for?"

Despite this, Godou still made sure to check with the others just in case.

"Everyone's waiting for the commander to give his briefing."

"I wonder what the oddball superior of mine will say this time…"

"So it's time huh. I wonder if that guy will follow the suggestions I gave him."

Mark answered Godou question directly while Lis expressed her doubts and the white coated youth whose name Godou still did not know presented a very suspicious response.

"What do you mean suggestions?"

Wary but curious at the same time, Godou asked the white coated youth what he meant.

"Using some of my… connections… I had a little chat with the commander and it turns out we were pretty compatible with one another."

"Humph… birds of a feather flock together. But how did you manage to meet someone so high up? I only meet him because of Mark's recommendation."

"How merciless Lis... compared to that guy I'm pretty normal you know. Anyway, using my various connections to blackmail… um arrange a few coincidences, I was able to meet him."

Although he found something distinctly wrong with that that last statement, Godou urged the white coated youth to continue.

"Yes, yes, ignoring all the moral violations of what you did what happens next?"

"Well, I suggested a speech to him that had a 100% chance of raising morale. Source: a fictional novel."

"Wait! Don't confuse reality with fiction!"

In response to Godou's heartfelt tsukimomi, the youth meerly replied:

"Well, if it worked for Sora, it will work for Coronel Sky."

One of the officers stopped and began to speak.

"ATTENTION SOLDIERS!"

An impossible loud voice rang through the town. Godou guessed that this is the effect of either a skill or a spell.

"I am Coronel Badas Sky, a proud knight of Kallamore at the commander in chief for the siege defence of this town of Tellap. And now without any further ado, I will begin my briefing session."

The commander went straight to the point at the very beginning.

"I will not lie to you all. Our Town is currently about to come under the assault of a monster army estimated to be around 3000 strong. The nearby town of Naidiriv is also about to become under the assault of a similarly sized force. On the other hand, our forces are comprised of around 1000 combatants(soldiers/mercenaries) and 3000 civilians(milta).

Tellap has three main lines of defence. The first is the outer walls which are our only real advantage in a siege. These walls are sturdy but uneven in height ranging from 6 to 9 metres in height.

This is unfortunate because the lower sections seem to be within the limits for some monsters to get a grip on or fly over so we can expect the fighting to be tough there. Unlike the wars against other humans, we cannot expect the outer wall to do anything but stop about 85% of the monsters from getting inside.

Behind that is a second line of defence made up of multiple rows of housing and moveable barricades and reverse forces which are stationed near the town gates to destroy any monsters that make it past the first wall.

This may be the deciding factor in the siege. In the event that the first wall is breached completely and the gates are broken down or opened, all units on the first wall are to immediately retreat to the second line of defence and so on.

Tellap is a town organised so that in the case that the outer walls are breached, the closely packed houses can act as a secondary line of defence to stall the invaders from reaching the keep. The only problem would be the streets between the houses which will have to be blocked off with barricades and defended.

The roofs of the builds also have to be secured as well to prevent monsters from ambushing the defenders of the second line of defence. There are two main streets which need to be defended. This also means that once the invaders break through the first wall they will attack us in two directions.

The last line of defence is the keep which holds many important facilities such as the training guilds, the Church of Freya, various pubs and taverns. If it comes to defending the keep then we have basically lost all ability to counter attack and have to drag it out into a battle of attrition until Naidiriv city sends reinforcements for us."

This clear and concise speech was something that was rarely seen outside of Kallamore. Rather than telling soldiers what to do in a chaotic battlefield where the fighters were in no state of mind to process new information, the commander had given a clear overview of what to expect and what to do beforehand.

Godou felt his respect for the commander rise as he realised this. Around him some people were muttering comments of approval. He wondered why Lis had called the commander an eccentric. He seemed perfectly normal Godou.

The white coated youth was staring expectantly at the commander. A wide grin on his face.  
"NOW TO ALL SOLDIERS! DO NOT BE DISHEARTENED BY THIS! BUT DO KEEP IN MIND THAT JUST AS I HAVE NO GUARANTEE OF THE OUTCOME OF THE BATTLE, I ALSO HAVE NO GUARANTEE OF MY NEXT WORDS!"

However, the commander wasn't done speaking yet. Seeing the depressed atmosphere around the city, the commander was now about rouse the spirits of the defenders and maximise morale.

"THOSE WHO EARN AN ACHIEVEMENT IN THIS BATTLE—BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE COMMANDER, I GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO HAVE INTERCOURSE WITH THE GIRL YOU LIKE ONCE!"

Suddenly, a silence like the bottom of the sea wrapped around the town square. What the silence signified was—confusion, contempt, amazement. Stunned, Godou found all his new found respect for the commander go down the drain.

But, not caring about this, the commander continued.

"Furthermore! All of you soldiers who fight on the front line, after this battle is won you will be freed from further military service, and from the responsibilities to pay tax for life! The country will guarantee you veteran benefits! Therefore—don't you die a virgin! Also, those with family or loved ones waiting—you must all return alive!"

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH!"

"Now! Everyone go to your rendezvous points. If you don't have one then you are classified as part of the milta and are to meet in the town square for further orders!"

As commander finished his speech, a loud roar was emitted from the town and several military officers tackled and dragged their superior somewhere, no doubt to give a major scolding to.

Meanwhile, Godou's only reaction was to wonder why he kept encountering these strange people. For some reason, he wasn't as shocked as he ought to have been considering the contents of the speech.

Ding!

**Status Update! The orders for the 136th Defence Party have changed.**  
**136th Defence Party**

**Members: 5**

**Orders: Rendezvous to the bench closest to [Mark's Pub] on the town square and wait for further orders.**

With the conclusion of the commander's speech, a message popped up in front of Godou. The pub customers started to give their farewells to one another and go in their separate ways.

"Well I'm a mercenary so I guess I'll be going."

Seeing this, Godou followed suit and gave his farewells.

"Me too. Want to be friends?"

"Sure."

**Lis has been added to your friend's list.**

"Oh that reminds me, I haven't advertised myself to you two yet have I?"

The white coated youth suddenly said that as Godou and Lis stood up to leave.

"I'm an information broker who arrived here a few hours ago due to certain circumstances. Mind becoming a part of my new information network?"

"I don't mind."

**Satoshi has been added to your friend's list.**

"Lol when did you become a tsundere? I accept."

"Haha maybe I should have worded like: "I'm giving you the chance to become a part of my information network. Be thankful for it!" or "It's not like I want to be friends with you. This is your once in a life time offer of joining my information network!". Anyway, I didn't bother registering as a mercenary so have fun on the frontlines~"

Thus Godou said goodbye to his new drinking buddies and made his way to the rendezvous point.

There were two people already there by the time he got there. One of them appeared to be a teenager wearing dark clothing and was armed with daggers. He was probably an assassin. The other one seemed to be around 20, wore light armour and was armed with a short bow. Probably an archer.

The latter appeared slightly familiar to Godou but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before. Both of them were male.

The three of them sized each other up as they waited in silence for the last two members to arrive.

[I'm back. I finally managed to stabilise my vessel for the time being. Because I only recently became like this there will be some times went I get disconnected randomly from reality. So did anything happen while I was gone?]

The telepathic voice of Godou's missing(?) friend greeted him after a long period of absence. Thinking about the how best to explain to Ferrex what he had been doing today, Godou decided to go with the simplest answer.

"Nothing really happened. The siege is about to start."

[Oh.]

There was silence after that as the group continued to wait.

They didn't have to wait long though as a minute later an armoured knight strolled up to them and joined the group.

The knight's build was slim but upright. Although he was not particularly tall, only around 169 cm, there was a smooth sense of control and knightly grace around his movements. A visored helmet covered the top half of his face. Godou recognised the knight's armour as the armour belonging to the Kallamore Knights.

**All members of the 136th Defence Party are accounted for. **

**Remain on standby for further orders.**

Godou wondered whether something wrong with the message that had popped up in front of him. There were only 4 people present from the party. Unless Ferrex had somehow been registered as a member which should not have been possible in his current state.

Oblivious to Godou's musings, the archer took lead of the group.

"Now that we have gathered, I think it's time to get some introductions sorted out… Is it alright with you if I lead?"

The archer looked questioning at the knight. Like Godou, the archer had probably recognised that person as a Kallamore Knight as asked out of deference of that status.

"If fine. I'm only a Novice Knight of Kallamore anyway so you don't have to be so respectful."

The knight's response however, was easy going. Godou noted that the knight's voice as softer and higher pitched than he expected. Speaking of which, Godou felt that the archer's voice sounded familiar to him was well.

"Hang on. Aren't we still missing a member?"

Since no one had pointed that out yet, Godou had taken the liberty of doing so himself.

"Huh? Don't we have 5 people here? Oh hang on you can't see Inori from this angle."

The others looked around in confusion and then realised the problem. The knight to a step to the side and Godou saw the fifth member who had unsuccessfully tried to hide behind the knight.

Another familiar face. And yet another awkward meeting.

The fifth member was the child-like priestess of Freya who was apparently 17 years old that Godou had met in the armoury earlier on.

Seeing her attempts to hide herself fail, the priestess immediately dropped to her knees and started kowtowing in front of Godou like a Buddha statue.

"I apologise for before! I didn't know you were such an important figure! I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry"

Godou froze up at the sight of this, unsure of what to do next. He wasn't the only one. This sight got mixed responses from the people around them.

"What the f*** just happened?"

"Wow what an asshole"

"God damn it! I want a loli!"

[Are you sure nothing happened? It looks like you somehow managed to cause a commotion while I was looking away again.]

As Godou became the target of a large amount of scorn and envy from the people around him, he suddenly felt like royal road was not going to be as relaxing as he thought it would be.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

In windowless room inside the main headquarters of the dark Church of Beelzebub, an emergency meeting was taking place. The contents of this meeting were secret to everyone except the ones inside the room. In fact, there was even an enchantment placed on the room to prevent eavesdropping of any kind.

Guarding the entrance of this room was a squad of 4 elite Paladins who, judging from their equipment, seemed well over level 300. Despite their high status, even these elite paladins did not know what the topic of the emergency meeting was about.

Inside the room, there were four people. Three were seated in a circular table whilst the last one stood next to the door.

Of the three people seated, two of them were middle-aged men while the other was an old woman. All of three of them wore expensive equipment with high level requirements.

The woman was the High Seer of the Order of Beelzebub, the foremost seer in all of the Order and the most sensitive person when it came to sense of holy power or divining oracles. One of the men, wearing a gold plated suit of armour, was the Paladin Highlord of the Order of Beelzebub, the leader of the paladin fraction in the Order of Beelzebub. The last man siting wore priests clothes and was the High Priest of the Order of Beelzebub, the overall leader of the entire church.

Without a doubt, this was a meeting of the bigshots within the Order the Beelzebub.

The only person who seemed out of place was the guard standing at the door who wore lower quality armour signifying his rank as a paladin somewhere in the low or middle ranking of the church. Yet despite that, the guard did not appear to be flustered or nervous to be in the presence of these people.

The topic of the meeting concerned an incident that had occurred only a few days ago:

"… Thus, in summary, a massive influx of holy power was simultaneously sensed by 7 of our top seers myself included. By overlapping the areas sensed by the seers, we have narrowed down the location to be somewhere in the Kallamore Kingdom…"

It was the elderly High Seer who was speaking. The High Priest and Paladin Highlord listened intently to her words. Meanwhile the guard was glazing at a corner of the room was if bored by the meeting.

"… As the foremost Seer of the Order of Beelzebub, I can confirm that this influx was caused by the consumption and production of Scared Energy. But the amount of Sacred Energy that is needs to be consumed to cause such a large disturbance… I fear this is only something that can be caused by a Divine Saint."

"High Seer, this kind of information is valuable to us, however, fights involving Divine Saints pop up now and then once every while. Is it really necessary to hold an emergency meeting just for this?"

The one who asked this question was the High Priest. In response to this, the High Seer placed her doubts out in the open.

"Information of what happened cannot be properly deduced by the confusion of holy power caused by that influx alone. Even I cannot identify that type of Sacred Energy and thus what churches were involved in that incident. Initially, it only seemed like one type of Sacred Energy was involved but then a few minutes later, there was a massive flare of amount of a different Sacred Energy. The thing is, the total amount of Sacred Energy didn't change at this moment. Just the ratios between the two Sacred Energies."

"No way…"

"Are you suggesting that-"

"Yes. I don't have any solid proof but I believe that this massive influx involved one type of Sacred Energy being converted to another type. In other words…"

"There's a chance that this case may indicate that a church with the power steal Sacred Power has awakened a Divine Saint. Either that or the Churches of Prometheus and Athene that we wiped out may have some survivors who were able to restart their religion. "

"Hmm. This is a serious matter indeed."

"Yes, this is the reason why I called for a meeting."

Having reached the same conclusion as the High Priest, the Paladin Highlord concurred while the High Seer ended her explanation.

"So what do we do?"

"I believe we should investigate this matter above all else. All in favour?"

The other two agree with the High Priest's decision. Having, determined his course of action the High Priest turned to the guard and ordered:

"Well, Kite you hear the story right?"

"Yep. What do you want me to do with it?"

The guard, Kite, replied coolly in a tone completely lacking in formality. The High Priest didn't mind it though. They had been friends for many years already. Additionally, despite his appearance, Kite was the possessor of a power that could shake the roots of the Order of Beelzebub.

"I want you to go and investigate this incident and react according to your judgement. Additionally, I want-"

"Hey! You can't go in there!"

"Sorry! I was ordered to pass on this message no matter what!"

The sounds of shouts came from outside the room. Suddenly, the door burst open and a panting messenger appeared. The messenger confirmed the identities of the occupants in the room, kneeled down and said:

"This is an urgent message from the Head of our Branch in the Kingdom of Haven! The one of our holy relics was stolen during transportation by a group of thieves!"

"What!? How!? Didn't we double the number of guards during the transportation? How did this happen!"

Despite the High Priest's hysterical questions, the messenger could only shake his head in response as he remembered how the operation was conducted.

"It was a trap! The entire situation was a trap… The mastermind behind this played us all like a devil spinning a chessboard! We couldn't do anything about it… and before we knew it they had already gotten away…"

Cowering slightly at the look of fury on the High Priest's face, the messenger added the last bit of the message he was told to be deliver.

"And also… the thieves left a note behind…"

"Oh! Did they they screw up?"

"No… it's…"

Without any further explanation, the messenger took out a folded piece of paper. The High Priest unfolded the piece and paper and read its contents. Afterwards he punched the wall and yelled:

"Kite! I'm giving you another additional assignment! Hunt down these thieves and retrieve our holy relic!"

It was then that the High Priest slammed the piece of paper on the table and stormed away. The remaining occupants in the room peered over to read the piece of paper, curious to see what could make the High Priest so angry.

The note simply read:

**Seeing as this object piques this humble servant's interest, one shall retain custody for now. By this simple expression of borrowing intent, your consent would be most desirable. The object in question shall be returned after thorough experimentation. Should the object in question be deemed to require our protection, the experiment could possibly be extended, one humbly prays for your understanding — Royal Arsenal**

Part 2

In a forest in the Kingdom of Haven, another certain meeting was taking place.

A rag tag group of people were gathering around a certain person waiting to be assessed. This group of people were not people who had randomly formed a group from virtual or online encounters. They were all the associates or rather, the subordinates of that man in reality. In their hands was a golden sceptre, a holy relic belonging to the Order of Beelzebub.

"So how did we go boss?"

"You managed to fulfil your objective but you almost didn't get away. In the end I can't really say that you did well."

"We passed right?"

"Yeah. You all passed."

The crowd cheered as they heard their assessment had been positive. The man who had assessed them sighed and muttered under his breath:

"Who knew that virtual reality could work so well as a combat stimulator… I didn't believe it when they first suggested it to me…"

Even if he taught his followers knowledge about magic and combat, it would be useless unless they had the necessary experience to undergo and survive life or death struggles. After all, he had no real standards for who he accepted into his association, as long as they held a grudge against a certain rival association he would accept them.

In the end, one of his students had answered his problem by suggesting that they use the virtual reality game, Royal Road, as a training stimulator for real life.

The man watched his subordinates celebrate for a moment before yelling:

"Alright! Time to move along before the church sends people to catch us!"

Immediately, the crowd quietened down and followed his orders. To have obtained this level of obedience, one would almost assume that the man was someone who ruled through fear. This was partly truth. However, overwhelming this fear was the respect and awe that the subordinates had for their leader. It was the feeling that no matter how hard they tried, they would never be able to surpass or fight alongside their leader.

This was true in reality.

And now, after a series of unfortunate chance encounters, this fact now held true in virtual reality as well.

Conversely, the man had a handsome face, dark hair and an upright proper aura around him that made you think of nobility.

Having recently joined this world, he had somehow managed to find himself in a fierce battle earlier on and had unknowingly obtained a gamebreaking powers.

Thus, England's Prince of Black Lightning, Alexander Gascoigne, makes this presence known in the continent of Versailles


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

[Hey Ferrex how does this situation seem like to you?]

Godou, being the perfectly average teenage boy that he believed himself to be, was no expert in large scale warfare or in any other large group battles in anything but sports. Thus, he decided to ask for the opinion of his vastly more knowledgeable companion.

[Well the situation seems quite bad.]

Noticing that Godou was still waiting expectantly, Ferrex signed and asked.

[I take it that you want the long explanation?]

"Well yeah I guess."

Godou had the impression that Ferrex was taking a deep breath for he started speaking again.

[From memory, the town/city of Tellap has a dimension of a bit more than 1km by 1km. From what you have told me there are 1000 defenders capable of fighting in the city and about 10% of the attackers are expected to make it past the first walls so about 100 of these defenders will need to remain on standby to fight them in the second line of defence.

Now let's think about the walls themselves. If 900 defenders are supposed to defend 4 walls then that means that 225 defenders are protecting each wall. One wall is 1000 metres long so that means each defender is responsible for guarding almost 4.5 metres by themselves. Or to put it a different way, each party has to defend about 20 metres of the wall themselves.

On the other hand, the enemy army has 4000 attackers which means that 1000 monsters will attack each wall. This means that for each defender, there will be almost 5 monsters. Or for each party, there will be 20-30 monsters at once, even more so when our side starts to suffer casualties.

So statistically speaking we are at a disadvantage. However, statistics mean nothing once the real battle starts and there were many things I did not consider in this including the role of the milta, the wall advantage, magic, weather, teamwork and tactics, the types and levels of combatants on both sides, luck etc.

Truth to be told, I believe the battle can or either way but the monster army seems to be slightly more favoured than us.]

As expected of the human encyclopaedia, no the worshiper of the War Goddess of Wisdom, Ferrex sure gave a detailed explanation.

Godou was now currently with his party on top of the west wall waiting for monster army to arrive, just as they had been ordered to do.

About an hour had passed since his party had rendezvous at the bench in front of Mark's pub and during that time, he had become acquainted with the members of his party. The composition of his party was pretty much a mixed bag in terms of levels with the members ranging from the low 100s to the mid 200s.

The other members were:

The archer who had become their de facto leader was level 241. He had a coolheaded manner of doing things and Godou was certain that he had met him before but just couldn't recall where. His name was Harris.

The dagger armed teenager was a level 100 assassin. He had a lively personality that seemed to contradict his class and was a self-proclaimed devotee of the Bro code. Despite this, Godou found that he could get along quite well with him. His name was Spade.

The Kallamore Knight was level 217. Although he was a Kallamore Knight, apparently he was more like a trainee in the final stages of training which could only be done by gaining more first-hand combat experience. He had introduced himself as Hel Bladerton.

And lastly of all the child-like priestess of Freya who was apparently the same age as Godou. She was level 163 and specialised in barriers and summoning magic. She seemed very attached to Hel and seemed to know him before the party met up. The rest of the party however were not nosy nor close enough to query further in that matter. Her name as Inori Smith.

Speaking of which, Godou had tried his best to sort out the problem between him and Inori during this waiting time period. After all, purposely avoiding someone for such a petty reason was not his preferred way of doing things.

Godou believed that he managed to get his message across and so the atmosphere between the two was slightly less awkward now. However, he catch Inori peeking some shy glances at him every now and then but pretended not to notice.

Hel also seemed wary of Godou once the full story between them had been told and now seemed to be staring at him with a look of reproach. Sort of like a tiger sizing up its prey or a jeweller looking for faults in a diamond. It was hard to tell when half his face was covered by the helmet though.

Harris whistled innocently as he looked over the wall pretending not to notice anything while, Spade had sidled next to Godou and nudged him saying:

"I can be your wingman anytime bro"

Hurriedly, Godou corrected Spade, trying to prevent any further misunderstandings from developing.

The idle chatter stopped as the bell rang to signify that the monsters were 5 kilometres away. Tension filled the already strained atmosphere on the town walls. Harris then decided that now that everyone had gotten to know each other it was time to assign some roles.

Godou, Spade and Hel would fight in the front as the vanguard, kicking down ladders and engaging the monsters that manage to breach the walls.

Inori was to keep a track of everyone's health and mana levels and apply healing magic appropriately.

Harris was to keep track of new enemies appearing and alert the others as well as take down any monsters that broke though the vanguard.

During this time, Godou saw several people who seemed to be part of the milta appear on the back portion of the wall armed with bows. When he asked about it, he learnt that they were volunteers who would support the soldiers and mercenaries on the wall by throwing rocks over the wall onto the army below or shoot monsters off the wall with weapons with knockback bonuses.

Having their assistance bolstered defence army's morale and made up for their lack of numbers.

Part 2

The bells started to ring again signifying that the opposing army was coming into sight.

Godou felt tense.

It was the sort of feeling you get before an exam.

The sort of feeling before an important sports match.

Amplified by several times.

A dust cloud approached, now clearly visible from the town walls.

Godou could barely make out the inhuman soldiers of the army.

The army of monsters had arrived!

The army stopped out of range of the defender's arrows as if observing them for about 10 minutes. During this time, the monster army spread out and surrounded the town, still out of range of the defender's attacks.

Then the siege began.

The first wave of monsters simultaneously attacked the four town walls. The first detachment seemed to have contained at least 2000 monsters attacking at the same time.

Arrows flew from the town walls, and magic spells rained down. The attackers perished easily from this onslaught.

The monsters that survived ran at the walls, placing ladders and attempting to climb up them to. The milta rushed forwards, dropping stones and boiling water down the ladders and onto the monsters.

Godou, Spade and Hel ran to kick down the ladders before anything reached the top of the walls.

In the span of about 10 minutes this force of 2000 monsters as completely destroyed without any of the monsters reaching the top of the walls. The defenders cheered. According to reports, the opposing army was 4000 strong. This meant that they had been able to take down half the army without so much as a single casualty.

Godou felt suspicious. Surely he hasn't ever going to be in such an easy fight right? After all, not matter how hard he tried, he always seemed to run into insanely powerful adversaries. Surely fate wouldn't be as kind as to let him off so easily.

He almost felt a sense of disappointment over the fact but quickly suppressed the feeling before it would grow into something more dangerous.

Godou did not know much about warfare, but his instincts were telling him that the monsters were just testing the water before jumping in. Strangely enough, the size of the monster army didn't seem to have decreased by that much considering the fact that they had just lost half of their forces, though the dust cloud made from the first wave made it hard to tell.

The second wave of a similar size charged out from the monster army only to be met with the same result.

As the defenders celebrated over their victory, a third wave of 3000 monsters charged.

And hell broke loose.

Using the ladders which had been brought over by the first and second waves, the third wave began their assault.

Magic spells and arrows rained down on them as usual but for some reason the attacks did not seem as effective as were against the first and second waves. Several monsters leaped at the walls and climbed over without the need to use the ladders at all. Rocks suddenly fell from the sky as aerial monsters ambushed the defenders when they were concentrating on the ground troops.

A humanoid monster climbed over the ladder. Godou swung his sword at it like a baseball bat. It died easily. Another two humanoid monsters attacked him from the side before he could react.

**You lost 41 Health**

**You lost 30 Health**

What the-

Godou kicked one of the monsters and struck the other one with his sword. They both died easily.

[What the hell are these things? They're as weak as level 10 wolves. No wait don't tell me… they're smoke screening their strong units with weaker ones?]

Godou heard Ferrex's musings but as unable to listen careful as another monster that looked like a giant lizard leap over the wall. Godou rushed to intercept it and found that this one was a lot stronger than the others.

It lashed at him with sharp claws, hissing as it did so. With unrefined and forceful movements, Godou evaded. While it was distracted by Godou, Spade snuck up on it and slit its throat from behind.

The lizard hissed angrily surviving the blow and tried to slash at Spade but Godou barely managed to block its claws with his sword, locking it in place. It tried to attack with its other hand but Spade stabbed a dagger though it, pinning its hand to the ground with his body weight.

While the two were stuck in a stalemate against the lizard, more monsters had continued to climb up the wall and they now found themselves in a situation where they were surrounded by monsters.

**Morale is falling. Confusion status has been afflicted.**

Amidst this chaotic situation, Godou heard Harris's voice clearly shout:

"EVERYONE SNAP OUT OF IT! THE FIRST FEW WAVES WERE MADE OF SPAWNABLE FODDLERS! THE REAL BATTLE STARTS NOW! SO WHAT IF THEY HAVE A FEW STRONG UNITS HIDDEN BEHIND THEIR FODDLERS! DEFENDER'S OF KALLAMORE COME BACK TO YOUR SENSES! REGROUP WITH YOUR PARTIES AND KILL THEM ALL!"

**You have heard a Rallying Call. Confusion has been dispelled, morale has been regained.**

- Guys regroup and remember your roles. Going off on your own defeats the whole purpose of fighting in a party.

TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG

With a series of quick shots, the monsters on one side of them were sniped down one by one. Additionally, Harris reminded the party what they should be doing using the party chat function.

"Hah!"

With a light shout, Hel rammed an armoured goblin on his shield and contradictory of his slim frame, managed to charge at the other monster surrounding them, ploughing through them like a juggernaut. He smashed into the lizard, armoured goblin and all.

The shock of the charge knocked Godou and Spade from their positions and knocked both the armoured goblin and the lizard off their feet. Godou's sword snapped in half from the force of the impact.

As Hel moved to finish them off, the lizard quickly regained its bearings and leapt at him. Godou was about to shout a warning but Hel easily avoided the attack and killed the lizard with a swift diagonal slash which somehow killed the armoured goblin behind it as well.

Following Harris's reminder, the three regrouped with the rest of the party and started fighting the monsters with greater efficiency then when they fought alone. Hel seemed to want to say something to Godou but then stopped as if he thought better of it.

Since Godou's Hard Iron Sword had broken, he was now forced to use his mana weapons and unarmed combat to fight. Upon using the mana weapon creation skill for the first time since his class change, Godou found a pleasant surprise.

**You have created a Mana Weapon**

**Mana Weapon has absorbed the Divine Aura around you**

**Mana Weapon has been converted into a Divine Mana Weapon.**

**Divine Mana Weapons have the ability to absorb spells and elements. You cannot be damaged by your own Divine Mana Weapons. While in the presence of a Divine Aura, they no longer require mana to maintain a physical state. Divine Mana weapons deal both physical and magical damage**

Because he had used Mana Weapon creation so often, Godou had a firm understanding of the abilities of the skill.

Previously, Mana weapon creation had had a constant drain his mana whenever he had used it. This prevented him from spamming the skill carelessly.

The larger a weapon was, the more time it took to create and thus Godou found it more efficient to create smaller weapons. For example a 50cm dagger would take about 1 second (20 mana) to create and continued to drain 20 mana per second until it was destroyed or until Godou cancelled the skill. A 1 metre (100cm) sword would take about 2 seconds (40 mana) to create and also continued to drain mana out of him at a rate of 20 mana per second.

However, now that his mana weapons had been "upgraded" into divine mana weapons, the mana draining per second problem had more or less been fixed. Now the only mana cost with the skill came from the time it took to create the weapon.

The second drawback of using mana weapons in close combat was that the mana weapons broke very easily which resulted in an indiscriminate explosion that also hurt Godou if he was too close. However, now it seemed like he didn't have to worry about that probably any more.

With the addition of his now large mana store and mana regeneration due to the Divinity stat, he should be able to make it through the siege using this skill.

Thus, the siege raged on.

Part 3

The natives of Versailles go to different versions of the "afterlife" when they die. The "afterlife" they end up in is dependent on many factors such as the Gods' they worship and the actions they take in life.

These "afterlifes" were managed by powerful entities that were said to hold powers rivalling those of gods. However, they were not gods of death themselves. In fact, they were fundamentally different from gods in the first place.

A god is defined by and worshipped by their attributes. For example, the Goddess Freya had the attributes of beauty and abundance.

These powerful entities governing these "afterlifes" were instead defined by a single element. They were the Elemental Lords.

These so called "afterlifes" could be considered another world separate from the living "mortal" world as they contained more that the souls of the dead. They were also the home of various elementals and phenomena related to the element of their Elemental Lord.

Thus, these "afterlifes" were alternately known as elemental realms.

The outside of the Divine Realm, the strength of Gods were proportional to their number of followers. Similarly, the strength of the Elemental Lords was proportional to the number of Gods using their elemental realm.

In the elemental realm of light, an important conversation was reaching its end. A white robed figure sat on a throne, arguing to a floating ball of light.

There were two other white robed "people" were present. Both of them kneeling down.

{… Thus, since I am unable to do so myself, I want you to punish the fool who dared to damage one of my divine temples and live to tell the tale.}

The floating ball was the one who made the request. It glowed like a miniature sun, pulsating as each word was spoken. If one were to try and sense its power, they would realise that it was the avatar of an extremely powerful being. Its current form was a result of this extremely powerful entity being too lazy to change its shape into something else.

Don't wanna! Now go away.

The white robed figure on the throne gave a frivolous reply, openly insulting this extremely powerful being. However, if one looked carefully, they would also find that this white figure also held unimaginable power.

{You dare say that to me! I was in active since before you came into power! Do you also wish to incur my wrath, the wrath of the God of Light?}

Do not forget where you are right now Lou. Or do you wish to challenge the Elemental Lord of Light in his own realm?!

A dangerous null in the conversation was made. Or so it seemed. In actual fact, this sort of barter was commonplace between the two powerful entities of light. Eventually, the white figure, the Elemental Lord of Light spoke:

Do you think that managing the Realm of Light is an easy thing to do? I have more important matters than fulfilling your petty revenge.

In reply to that, the shiny ball, the God of Light, Lou, brought out its thump card.

{Do not forget the favours you owned me for these past 100 years. Do this and I will consider your debt clear.}

There was another silent break to the conversation. Then the Elemental Lord of Light finally came to a decision.

Very well. I will attempt to grant your request. However, I personally am a busy person so my candidates will do the job instead. After all if they fail and somehow die in the mortal realm, they will just respawn in this realm. Are you happy with that?

{Humph, always compromising what a stingy Elemental Lord.}

Shush it, you vengeful God

{Fine I accept your proposal.}

The Elemental Lord of Light then spoke to the two robed figures and opened up a teleportation portal to the mortal realm.

Knite, Castor, you heard it. Now go.

Yes, my lord

The two vanished without saying another word.

Watching them go, the God of Light, Lou expressed his thanks.

{Thanks for helping. I can't do anything myself because the decree of Gods stops me from interfering with the mortal world.}

"That's why you shouldn't have agreed to join that damned contract."

{Maybe but huh? Wait you…}

The reason that the God of Light had stopped talking was because it wasn't the Elemental Lord of Light who replied to his remark. A hooded cloaked figure had somehow approached them without either of them sensing it.

Startled, the Elemental Lord of Light thundered:

How dare you trespass in my realm! Name yourself!

The God of Light Lou had also transformed his form into a more humanoid battle ready figure. Both of them could sense a power equalling their own from the hooded cloaked figure.

"Funny you should say that, thief. A certain Elemental Lord has been hoarding my sword here so I came to retrieve it. If you don't want to give then that's fine as well…"

The hood of the cloak fell off revealing a woman with shoulder length blue hair and a gaze as sharp as a naked blade.

"…I will just use force to retrieve it."

The woman gave a cold smile that created the feeling she would cut you down as soon as you approached her, no questions asked.

{No… How is this possible, you should be dead!}

"Dead? No we merely sealed ourselves to wait for a stronger era. After all your Divine Saints were all pitifully weak back then… I wonder how much they have improved by now."

Regardless of that, I will not allow someone as dangerous as you to regain your weapon! Prepare yourself!

{Humph if my proxies cannot defeat you then I just have to do so personally!}

Hearing this, the cloaked woman smiled coldly.

"It's too late. I just retrieved my sword during the time we were having this conversation."

{Regardless, Divine Overlord: The Sword Saint you will die here now!}

Sword Saint, I have no personal grudge against you but I cannot allow someone like you to walk away freely!

The presences of the Elemental Lord of Light and the God of Light, Lou swelled up dramatically. Obviously, they were serious in fulfilling their threats. That was how dangerous the woman, no the Divine Overlord was to them.

"Fighting an Elemental Lord and a God at the same time. This sounds like a good wake up exercise."

Smiling at the incoming enemies, the Sword Saint readied herself for battle.

Thus on that day, a large portion of the Elemental Realm of Light was destroyed as collateral damage from the battle between the three unimaginable powerful individuals ruling over the power of light.

In the end, both sides had been forced to retreat with no casualties.

Part 4

Unaware of the disaster that had struck their home land, the two Elemental Lord candidates exited the teleport portal and found themselves at the ruins of the Lost Temple of Lou.

Following their instructions, the Elemental Lord candidates used their powers to investigate presences in the surrounding areas and found two large masses of conflict, both about a day's walk from their current location.

The two Elemental Lord Candidates looked at each other briefly and nodded, coming to a consensus.

Both of them held vast powers over the element of light.

One was a master of close combat techniques.

The other was a master of arcane magic.

They were strong enough to hold their own against most things in the mortal realm.

Deciding to search both masses of conflict at the same time, the two spilt up and went their separate ways.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

The strategist leading the monster army assaulting the large town/small city of Tellap stared at the siege in progress as if it were a puzzle he had been trying to solve.

Almost three days had passed since the siege had started and the town as still holding out. The decisive day of battle was drawing close by. He knew he had to succeed.

After all, his lord had trusted him with this task and left him with the stronger half of the monster army before going off to lead the siege on the city of Naidiriv personally. He could not bear to disappoint his master's expectations of him.

Originally this army had been comprised of 3000 monsters.

Approximately, half of them (1500) were the infantry type monsters. Now, late in the siege, about half of them had died.

About one sixth of the army (500) had flight abilities. 150 of these were lost in the siege so far.

Another sixth (500) could be classified as cavalry types. However, if you counted the mounts and the riders as one unit then there would only be 250 of such units and they had not taken part in the siege as of yet.

About 300 had been ranged attack/support types. 200 of them remained.

The remainder had been summoning type monsters. On average, each unit was capable of spawning one weak soldier every three minutes and could spawn up to 10 at the same time. These units were the key to success in the battle as although their summons were extremely weak, they were disposable pawns who would be used to create a smokescreen for the stronger units to survive in.

Compared to that, the defenders of the siege had suffered considerable losses as well. However due to high morale they had been able to hold out for so long.

A loud commotion near rear of the army, near where he was, brought him out of his musings.

A white robed figure riding a white horse trotted effortlessly through the headquarters of the monster army. The mane and tail of the horse seemed to be composed purely out of white fire.

It was a Pale Horse. A level 400+ elemental monster notorious for being extremely difficult to tame and ride. Having a unique white flame showed it was also probably a boss monster class as well.

The white robed figure riding it was obviously no ordinary person.

Trying not to let his fear show, the strategist demanded to know the intentions of the rider. In response, the rider had said:

"I have been sent here to hunt for a certain individual who may be inside that town. If you wish for the fall of this town then we share a common goal. I will assist you in this battle."

The figure gave a proposal which left no room for refusal. The strategist decided not to worry about that now.

There was no doubt that the monster army had just gained a powerful ally.

And with that, he had just figured out how to make a breakthrough.

Part 2

Ferrex looked absently around him. He was in a white space of nothingness. Again.

This space could be said to be the interior of his soul holding vessel. In other words, the "interior" of pendant that he had given Godou for safekeeping.

In this space, he had a body.

No it would be more accurate to say that in this space he could create anything he wanted.

This space could be seen a representation of his soul, his being itself.

The problem was…

"I got trapped in here again…"

Due to the fact that his soul binding process was still unstable, there were moments when he was cut off from the outside world.

Not that he could really do anything on the outer world anyway.

In the outer world, in reality, he was nothing but an object, an item now.

He couldn't move things by himself.

He couldn't cast spells.

He couldn't fight.

He couldn't do anything other than talk.

Never had he ever felt so useless before.

No.

Correction.

There was a time when he had felt like this.

After the Divine Saint Knight of Beelzebub had destroyed his church he had lost his sense of purpose and became a useless "doll".

But the Church of Freya had helped him.

The Divine Saint of Freya had become his friend and benefactor.

And through him, Ferrex had made a new friend who was capable of doing things beyond his expectations.

And it was through the efforts of his new friends and benefactors he had regained his resolve.

Yes.

Right now, he was useless.

Right now, he would be unable to help his new friend even if he wasn't stuck in this white space.

But right now, he was still alive.

And if he was alive, there was still hope.

A spark of inspiration suddenly lit up in his mind.

Ferrex considered the idea carefully…

It could work.

But it would require careful planning and consideration.

Withdrawing all his attempts to break out of the white space, Ferrex started to refine this spark of inspiration.

And started plans for the recreation of his physical body.

Part 3

The three days that the siege had gone on for had not been easy for Godou and his party. The number of invading monsters seemed endless and the continuous fight was taxing on both the body and the mind. Godou, Spade and Harris were also players as well so unlike their NPC teammates, they could not stay in-game 24/7.

The monster attacks didn't even stop when night came either. During the night, visibility was worse for most of the defenders while the monsters gained a 50% increase in all stats. The fact that he didn't seem to gain any experience from all this fighting did not make it any better for Godou.

Despite this, Godou tried to keep his spirits up. After the first day of the siege had passed, the party was reassigned to the less chaotic second line of defence where they could have a slight reprieve from the fighting. Godou took the opportunity then to log off and get some sleep.

Godou was thankful to find that the town was still holding out when he logged on the next morning. Conversely, his party had been reassigned defend the walls again. He made his way to rendezvous with them and spent another day defending the walls continuously with his party.

During this time, Godou had found himself developing a sense of camaraderie with his party mates. As comrades bonded through trauma they were people he would trust with his life.

The awkward atmosphere between himself and Inori had already become a thing of the past, forgotten over the events of siege.

Hel also seemed less wary and friendlier to him in that regard. And it went without saying that he got along well with Spade and Harris.

Speaking of which, Godou had finally managed to figure out why Harris had seemed so familiar to him. His confident manner of speaking and reliable atmosphere was the same as when Godou had first seen him. It had only taken Godou a while to figure it out.

Like Reta, Harris was a veteran player in Kallamore.

Just like Reta who was called the "Grey Phantom", Harris had participated in enough battles to have gained a nickname bestowed to him by the player community of Kallamore.

And just like Reta, Harris did not like his call sign very much.

Harris was "Quick Shot".

In other words, the player who had told everyone to form into parties back in Naidiriv when they were about to leave to intercept the monster army.

Ding!

**Status Update! The orders for the 136th Defence Party have changed**

**136th Defence Party**

**Members: 5/5**

**Orders: Retreat from the walls and man the second line of defence as reserve troops.**

After several exhausting hours spent repelling attacks on the front line, it seemed that Godou's party was given the chance to have a respite.

Grateful to have the chance to rest, they retreated from the wall and made their way to the bottom of the stairs leading to the wall.

Being part of the reserve troops meant that they would be the first to intercept any monsters that had managed to make their way past the wall and stop them from opening the town gates from within. They would also be called as reinforcements if something happened on the wall as well.

Although things were not as laidback as being in the middle of the second line of defence it certainly was more relaxing than having to concentrate for enemies every second on the town walls.

Godou rested with his back against the cool wall, panting heavily.

Fighting for so long had been very taxing. It was like having to play a sports match right after running a marathon while simultaneously memorising a textbook. Sweat trickled down his back and his limbs felt leaden.

Godou found it particularly difficult since his weapon had broken on the very first day of the siege and he hadn't had time to replace it. Although he could compensate for that somewhat with his Mana Weapon Creation skill, he still found it quite tough, especially in the brief moments where he ran out of mana and had to rely on his amateur close combat abilities to survive.

Speaking of which, I should have other combat skills as well. Why haven't they activated?

Putting aside the Divine Wind Decree skill which Godou had decided to use only as a last resort, Godou certainly recalled having passive skills which would vastly help in combat. He opened the information windows for these skills again.

**Overpowering Will (Passive) Beginner Level 1**

**Your determination to do the impossible allows your battle spirit to overcome your limits. You can temporarily exceed your physical limitations in battle and ignore the effects of your opponent(s) fighting spirit and MORALE. Your fighting spirit will continually rise in battle. Stamina consumption and hunger will increase for the next few days afterwards due to pushing your body beyond its limit. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.**

**Survival Instinct (Passive) Beginner Level 1**

**It is said that a cornered beast is many times more dangerous than a normal one. An adrenaline rush surges through your body causing your ability to deal damage to increase as your condition worsens. As this skill grows your ability to perceive danger will sharpen. Activates automatically depending on your mental state.**

**Might of Ruler Beginner Level 1**

**You have denied the power of higher beings. Inflict psychological pressure on your opponents**  
**Shatters illusions and dispels magic/buffs. Fighting spirit increases proportional to the power of the strongest opponent present. This skill activates automatically depending on your actions.**

**Heretic Decree: Unknown**

**A Heretical Divine Decree that has yet to take form as a useable skill. It will transform into something useful according to your desires during a time of crisis.**

Godou wondered what he needed to do to be able to activate these skills. Apparently all of the activated according to his mental state or actions but having been an active participant in the siege so far shouldn't those passive skills have activated at least once by now?

Going with flow, Godou had at some point conformed to the "kill or be killed" mindset that had been present in the battle.

Reflecting back on this, Godou realised that having such a mindset was really no good. As a pacifist, should he be trying to avoid having all the fighting happen? But then talking to the soldiers themselves was no good.

He would have to somehow meet the one leading the monsters to be able to do that. But the leader was bound to be at the very rear and to reach at that place he would have to neutralise all the soldiers.

But wouldn't be hypocritical to suddenly try to stop the battle there?

Troubled, Godou's ran in an endless circle.

"Here."

A soft voice interrupted Godou's thoughts. He looked and saw Hel holding out a sheathed dagger to him.

Speaking of which, Hel had finally taken off his helmet so Godou finally saw his face. Hel's light coloured hair was oddly long for a boy. His features were androgynous and graceful, almost girlish even. So much that Godou was sure that he would have mistaken Hel for a girl if he wore feminine clothing.

Hel also seemed younger than Godou expected. In fact, he seemed to be the same age as Godou.

Seeing Godou's confused expression, Hel adverted his eyes and said in his light voice:

"You're troubled because your weapon broke the other day right? I'll give you this as a replacement since it was partially my fault that it broke. T There's no other special meaning to this alright!"

So he noticed that and came to apologise huh? Hel seemed strangely flustered as he said that. Godou felt his heart skip a beat from the sight. Hel's hesitant composure lacking of any confidence was so different from the self-assured atmosphere he normally emitted that he seemed almost adorable.

Get a grip on yourself Godou. That's a guy… I think.

Godou quickly stopped his thoughts from traveling in another dangerous direction.

Now that he thought about it though, he had never explicitly heard what Hel's gender was. From his domineering armoured composure and physical manner of doing things, you would assume that he was a guy but-

Realising that he was seriously arguing with himself to find hope in such a topic, Godou felt quite sad.

Hel who had been holding the dagger the whole time seemed to take Godou's silence as a rejection.

"Its fine if you don't want it. I guess I'll just-"

"Sorry, I was just thinking on some things. I accept your gift. Thank you very much."

Hel sounded like he was about cry as he said that. Realising that that a rift would form between them if he let Hel finish his sentence, Godou accepted the gift. Not that he had the heart to refuse, her… him.

"This is just one of the standard issue weapons for Kallamore Knights. There's no s special meaning to this so…"

Hel passed Godou the dagger before trailing off awkwardly.

"So yeah… Oh hey would you look at that, a monster's broken through. Better go kill it!"

Hel left quickly to intercept a monster. Godou had the impression that he had run away from the conversation. What a strange fellow.

Initially Godou had thought that Hel had hated him but that didn't seem to be the case. Godou identified the dagger he had just received.

**Enhanced Steel Dagger**

**A mass produced dagger primarily issued to Kallamore Knights and other officers in the Royal Kallamore Army. It was owned briefly by a young Kallamore Knight who passed it on to a comrade as an apology and a token of friendship.**

**Restrictions:**  
**100 Strength**  
**150 Agility**

**Durability: 47/60**

**Damage: 113**

**Bonuses:**  
**The durability of this weapon does not fall easily.**  
**The durability of this weapon does not fall due to rust.**  
**Chance to deal double damage when attacking with this weapon.**  
**Increased ability to lower the durability of the objects it strikes.**

In all aspects except for probably reach, the Hel's dagger was a lot better than his Hard Iron Sword.

"Haah Helena… after all these years you still haven't fixed that bad habit of yours"

Godou started. At some point in time, Inori had snuck up next to him. The normally clumsy loli girl was looking at him seriously now.

"Please don't mind Helena. She was raised in a strict environment and trained hard to become a Kallamore Knight. Because of this, Helena is not very good at interacting with people and making friends."

Since Inori had started a conversation about someone completely unknown to him, Godou asked tha obvious question.

"Who's Helena?"

Inori looked at him in tilt headed confusion before saying.

"Helena is a childhood friend I guess? Our families were close and we used to visit each other's homes all the time. Back then, Helena used to lack a lot of self-confidence and couldn't do anything by herself. Really, what a troublesome girl!"

Godou thought it felt quite discerning to see someone who looked like a child say something like that. For some reason, he had the impression of an adorable child asking to be praised. Godou supressed his desire to pat her.

Putting that aside, Godou still didn't know what Inori was talking about. Was Helena related to Hel some how? Both their names sounded foreign to Godou. As expected of the naming scheme of a fantasy game.

But looking at Inori's expectant face, Godou couldn't help but think that a misunderstanding of some sort had been created again.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

An explosion of light erupted from the top of the wall, bring Godou back from his idle thoughts.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Lexus watched over the crowded field, waiting for the person he was looking for to appear. He didn't know when it started but it was only a few moments ago that the field was almost empty. Now, one after another, people were appearing from out of nowhere. These were the foreigners that were killed during the earlier attack.

Although the defence army had lost two thirds of their original force, about half of the force lost should have been comprised of the freedmen sent by the Holy Seer.

Thus, about half of them should have had the ability to respawn after dying.

However, it was only now, 4 days after the day of the attack that these foreigners could reappear.

The next movements of this newly revived army of about 1000 fighters would be to reinforce the towns which were currently under siege. From what Lexus could discern, it seemed like the army wanted to spilt up to defend both of the towns at once.

Personally, Lexus didn't approve of this idea because while attacking the monster raid force from behind with an army of 500 would cause considerable damage, it would not change the tide of the battle as effectively as an army twice that side. Thus, such reckless actions would only lead to temporarily satisfaction before the fighters met their deaths again. However, while Lexus had already spoken to the leading foreigners about his deduction, it was not his responsibility to worry about those issues.

He hadn't been told to do anything about it either and Lexus was here on a different errand after all. Speaking of which, the nature of his errand was something completely unrelated to the church. Rather than coming from the high priest, it had come from a high ranking Kallamore noble he was on close terms with.

Lexus scanned the crowd looking for the person he was assigned to pass the message, no rather, give a quest onto. By sheer coincidence, that person was also someone he was well acquainted with. After a while, he found her and called her over.

She was teenaged girl wearing light body armour complimented with a loose grey scarf and a skull shaped mask. Although her current appearance looked like a monster that would haunt the depths of a shadowy dungeon, Lexus knew that she was a master of disguise and infiltration.

The only problem was…

"Hey Lexus~ What brings you here? Hmm it's been a while since I've seen you by yourself… Normally you're with Vin or Mark or some other church official… Oh I get it! Taking your first steps for independence huh? Or a you giving those two some alone time? I do not approve of this shipping!"

… she had an eccentric personality and said things that were sometimes completely incomprehensible even to him. Her name was Reta.

Lexus ignored Reta's friendly nudging and went straight to the point of his errand. If he let Reta take the pace then who knows where the conversation would go.

"Hello Reta, I am here to because I have a request for you to do."

"Damn you're no fun at all~"

As they were having this conversation, the noises made by the people around then quietened and vanished. This was a result of the soundproofing barrier that Lexus had just set up around them.

"No more accurately, this is a request from a friend of mine which I think will interest you. To put it simply, the body of Kallamore Knight Koldeurium has been located after almost 30 years of absence."

"Koldeurium… wasn't that the Kallamore Knight Commander in the last Kallamore Haven war? Well, what does a corpse have to do with that request?"

As if some hidden button had been pressed, Reta's eccentric demeanour vanished. It was these moments that made Lexus really want to question whether Reta was actually like that or whether it was just an act.

"The thing is, it wasn't a corpse. Koldeurium seemed to be in a coma like state and cannot be awakened no matter what we do. His body can be found in a secret room in the deepest parts of a dungeon in the kingdom of Haven. We don't know how he got there but we have our suspicions. Regardless of that fact, and regardless of whether the Haven Kingdom is privy to knowledge of Koldeurium's location, it still remains that Kallamore has found a crucial player in their military. If the kingdom of Haven finds out that Kallamore knows this, they may send out people to move the body somewhere else or worse, destroy it. Thus, your job is to, along with a few other people, guard the body until a specialised team can to be mobilised and arrive to move the body back to Kallamore territory."

Having said this much, Lexus knew that a quest notification would have appeared before Reta. Ignoring this, Reta questioned:

"Hang on. Aren't religious orders supposed to remain neutral on the issues of conflicts between kingdoms? Why are you the one to give out the quest?"

This, time, it was Lexus's turn to smile mysteriously, intending to end the topic there.

"Well, let's just say that I have my connections."

"You know, I heard some interesting things from a saint named Ferrex last time I was here. Stuff about independent units within a church which only serve the high priest."

"Really? I've never heard of anything like that"

Did he just imagine that suspicious glint in Reta's eyes as she said that? Or was it just a special effects function on the mask she was wearing. It seemed that Reta's instincts were as sharp as ever. Needless to say, Lexus decided to take the less messy option of playing dumb and ending the topic there.

"So, will you accept the quest? By the way, you are only allowed to bring one other person to help you on this quest and you not allowed to disclose this information to anyone else."

"…"

There was a brief silence as Reta read the quest information. Then suddenly she exclaimed:

"Hey this is a B ranked quest you know! Are you asking me to do this with just 2 people? Meanie! Slave driver! Mole people conspirator!"

As if nothing happened, Reta's calculative demeanour reverted back once again. Ignoring this, Lexus steered the conversation to more pressing matters.

"Don't worry about that. 3 other people have been given the same quest as you so there will be about 8 people doing this quest. Anyway, Tellap and Naidiriv are currently under siege at the moment. Tellap is still holding out but apparently the situation is really bad in Naidiriv. Would you like to get a free trip to Naidiriv? I'm going to have to fix the teleport gate there anyway."

As Lexus said that he pulled out some magical reagents from his bag and started to draw out something on the ground.

"Err sure… But wouldn't it be too late to do anything by the time we arrive?"

"Nope we're teleporting there directly."

As he said that the magic circle that Lexus had just drawn on the ground glowed and flashed. Then, the surrounding of the two changed from an empty field to a chaotic battlefield full of people running, screaming and fighting monsters. Lexus immediately became aware of a strange but very powerful presence in the town.

"H Hey! Did you just make a teleport gate by yourself? What were you going to do if we were moved to some random location?"

"If we did go somewhere random then I don't know what we would do. I only had enough reagents for one teleportation. But don't worry, I gave Vin an anchor to place in Naidiriv so that I could teleport there safety once I was done with my errand."

Looking around them, Lexus saw that the situation in Naidiriv really was bad. The monsters seemed to have been able to push back the defenders to the keep. To one side he saw a several members of the church of Freya fighting what appeared to be the leader of the monster army.

The battle between the two sides appeared to be more or less a stalemate but due to the fact that the other combatants, apart from the few Kallamore Knights that had stayed in town, were significantly weaker than the paladins of Freya, the defending side was being pushed back.

Still concerned about the strange presence he felt, Lexus decided to take advantage of Reta's confusion and make a getaway.

"Reta go assist the paladins of Freya, I have another errand to run. We will talk about the other details later."

"R Roger."

Without another word, Lexus walked into a nearby alleyway. Taking advantage of the commotion caused by the battle between the Paladins of Freya and the boss monsters, Lexus cast an invisibility barrier around himself.

Then he activated flight magic and made a beeline towards the location of the presence.

He noticed that this was a more secluded side of the battlefield. The density of defenders in this area was significantly less than on the fight fighting the boss monster. In other words, Lexus concluded, it was a perfect place to launch an ambush on the defenders of Naidiriv who were preoccupied with fighting.

However, Lexus was unable to pinpoint the exact location of the presence. Just like Ferrex who excelled in purification, buffing and debuffing, Lexus's ability to sense presences was only stronger than the average priest but weaker than a seer. Not that it really mattered in this situation.

Conversely, Lexus's fortes lay in barrier and summoning magic. Using his talent in casting barriers, Lexus landed in the street the presence appeared to be in and erected a powerful barrier around them, carefully making sure that no one else ended up trapped in it as well. This barrier contained the added attributes of damage reflection, soundproofing and invisibility so from the outside, no one who see what was happening inside.

Without further ado, Lexus spoke.

"Isn't it time you revealed yourself?"

Although he couldn't see anyone inside the barrier Lexus was certain that he had managed to trap the culprit.

"I could say the same thing about you…"

A voice came from directly in front of him.

Immediately, Lexus cast spells of dispelling and binding at that location and with the sound of shattering glass, a robed figure appeared dressed in white.

At the same time, the figure fired several concentrated beams of light which rushed directly at Lexus's body.

The beams smashed though his invisibility barrier but were deflected from their original course, barely missing him.

"Oh interesting, it's been a while since anyone's managed to break past my defensive barriers. Who are you?"

"…"

Appearing amused by this brief exchange, Lexus continued to speak, throwing out his hypothesises and observations in an attempt to gain information.

"The aura of light I feel from you is intense that I would have almost mistaken you for a powerful member of the church of Lou. However, because your presence is always so intense that cannot be the case."

There was a limit to how powerful an aura can become by being a supporter of a powerful being. Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights could only temporally transcend this limit but during the moment they cast their Heaven's Calling spells or use Divine Possession.

The white figure in front of Lexus had an intensely powerful aura of light. However, it was because his aura was so intense all the time that Lexus was certain that he was not a Divine Saint or a Divine Saint Knight.

Although there were many other powerful beings with attributes of light, there only seemed to be one option Lexus could classify the person in front of him. Unfazed by the wary glare the figure was giving him, Lexus asked the question:

"Are you perhaps, the Elemental Lord of Light?"

"…"

"No, I guess the intensity of an Elemental Lord's aura should be stronger than yours. That leaves two options, you are an Elemental Knight or an Elemental Lord candidate… and the reason for you being here… would it have anything to do with the destruction of the Lost Temple of Lou? The god of light and the elemental lord of light should have good ties with each other after all."

"Such frightening deductive ability… Who are you?"

"I am but a simple priest serving the Goddess Freya. Am I right? Your expression tells it all."

There was a brief silence. During this time, Lexus reviewed his current situation. He had been pretty sure that his binding spell had been deflected at the last moment so his opponent should still be able to move. But why hasn't he? Why is he still pretending to be caught? Is he stalling for time to cast a spell of some sort?

Lexus allowed none of this internal conflict to appear on his face but warily readied his defences.

With a look of disdain, the figure finally spoke.

"It is as you say. I am one of the Elemental Lord candidates of the Elemental Lord of Light. The God of Light, Lou, requested that something were to be done in revenge for the destruction of his holy temple. However, since the one who destroyed it had the protection of Athene, Lou was unable to curse him. And since Lou was one of the Gods who swore to obey the Divine Decree, he is also unable to directly affect the world. Thus, Lou came to the Elemental Lou of Light and requested a favour."

"Hoho, what a vengeful god."

"Hence the Elemental Lord of Light proposed this mission on his two candidates."

"Oh so you decided to come to the towns closest to the temple ruins to search for the culprit there? But then you found them under siege and decided to help out the monsters? Or were you planning on destroying the towns and killing both sides indiscriminately?"

"…"

"…"

There was another silent break in the conversation. Lexus could feel the fighting spirit and pressure of the figure in front of him suddenly swell. It's coming!

"Enough talk. Die!"

The figure, no the Elemental Lord candidate's aura suddenly swelled up and an explosion of light erupted from his body.

At the last moment, Lexus was able to teleport out of the way of most of the damage and also tried to reflect part of the attack back with a rebound barrier.

As the smoke cleared, both combatants confirmed that their adversary was still alive and well. Without further ado, they started another fierce exchange of attacks.

Thus, a second decisive battle began in the town of Naidiriv. 


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

On the final day of the siege of Tellap, a glowing white figure sat at the front lines of horseback. Strangely enough, the horse was standing on empty air, 50 metres above the top of the wall.

Broken ladders, armoured corpses and bloodied weapons. The base of the town walls were littered with the filth of battle.

Screams of fear and fierce battle cries created a loud racket which was almost deafening. Crow, vultures and other scavengers circled the battlefield. Although their motives were different, they were doing the same thing as he was.

Not attacking anyone. And yet not helping anyone either.

An impartial observer. Or that was what he tried to be.

Elemental Lord of Light Candidate, Knite.

Earlier that day he had met up with the leader of the monster army to see if he had any information about the destruction of the Lost Temple of Lou.

Sadly, after wasting more than half a day to see if any of the monsters had been marked by Lou as the culprit, he could only conclude that the monsters were not involved with his mission.

Although he thought of himself as a patient person , half a day of listening to that cowardly narcissistic monster leader brag about their chances of victory was enough to put even him on the edge.

Monster tribes usually had brave fighters among them. This army was no exception. However the way that they were being used was completely wrong. After watching for half a day, Knite would only just barely stop himself from pointing out all the monster leader's mistakes.

It wouldn't do for him to interfere too much with the mortal realm after all.

Nevertheless, Knite was fond of strong fighters. The more strong people there were the more people he could enjoy a good fight with.

Well, that was until he becomes forced to ascend as the Elemental Lord and look after the Elemental Realm.

Being only a candidate, Knite did not have that many obligations at the moment. That meant that he was usually free to do whatever he wanted liked. Even if he did have work to do, he could normally leave it for the other Elemental Lord Candidate, Castor, to do.

When he ascended as the Elemental Lord he would be have to merge with Castor anyway. Considering the fact that memories were merged in a permanent Elemental Fusion it would be better if one of them had been having fun, right?

Otherwise they would just end up sharing memories of doing nothing but work.

Fundamentally, Knite was far from a diligent person. In fact, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to call him the direct opposite of a workaholic. That sort of stuff just didn't pipe his interest.

Normally anyway.

If he ever did anything diligently, then there could only be two reasons for that.

The first would be if it was a direct order from the Elemental Lord.

Whenever the Elemental Lord gave an order, it must be obeyed.

After all, Knite didn't want the Elemental Lord to die randomly whilst doing a task that Knite refused to do. That would mean he would have less time to procrastinate and laze around the Elemental Realm watching the happenings of the Mortal Realm.

It also meant that he would have to merge with Castor and inherit… Castor's unfortunate workaholic tendencies and memories of working.

Just contemplating the horrific future awaiting him was enough to rouse Knite's motivation to enjoy the present and do everything he could to prolong his time of fun.

Thus to prolong the amount of time he could slack off before he had to ascend as the Elemental Lord of Light, Knite obeyed the orders of the Elemental Lord of Light.

Aside from that there was only one other reason that he did some properly.

To put it simply, if it involved strong opponents his motivation to complete the task who soar the max.

In the Realm of Light, the only beings that dared to fight him were the Elemental Lord himself, and the other Elemental Lord Candidate, Castor.

However, considering the fact that the Elemental Lord was busy most of the time and that Castor had a very annoying fighting style, Knite still found himself bored for most of the time in the Elemental Realm.

Thus, since he finally had the chance to go to the mortal realm after a long time, he thought this would be a chance to look for some strong fighters.

After all, the state of the ruins of Lou's temple was not something anyone could have done. The whole place practically screamed that a huge battle had taken place.

Castor's analysis had been that a powerful attack had been launched at the temple, reacting with the Divine Gem in the temple and forcing it to overflow the area with mana and divine power thus causing an explosion.

The additional information he had gotten from Lou was that there were two culprits responsible for the destruction of the Temple. One of them had perished in the blast caused by the explosion and had been taken to the Elemental Realm of Darkness where Lou couldn't touch him.

The other one had managed to survive. Lou had said that the survivor had changed after doing the deed. Lous had alos said that he had branded the culprit with a symbol of light which could only be seen by beings with exceedingly high light affinity. He also said something about the one who died being very powerful…

Knite racked him brain to try and remember what else Lou had said. Knite had a bad habit of remembering only the things he deemed important.

Thus since he couldn't remember anything else, it mustn't have been important.

The only thing important was that the culprit who died was very strong. That meant that the one who survived, in other words the victor of the fight must be even stronger as well.

A task which had managed to fulfil other his requirements for motivation. Who would have know such a task existed.

Knite could tell that he was going to have a good time.

But with the siege going, it was really hard to tell what was going on. Even after questioning the monsters he could gain little information on where his target could be, or even if his target was currently in the besieged town.

Thus, all that was left was to go to the battlefield personally and single out every individual that seemed promising and check if they had Lou's branding.

"What are you doing?! Attack them!"

The monsters spotted Knite simply observing the battle yelled at him to do something. He ignored them without paying much attention.

Knite had tried this method on the 3 other walls of the town siege. But to no avail. Although, the town had many strong fighters, none of them had Lou's branding. It was the same with the current wall that he was observing as well.

"You god damn useless…"

"What the hell is that thing? Shoot it down!"

The yelling of the monsters caused him to also attract the attention of the town defenders. Noticing him, they started to launch their attacks at him. Knite didn't blame them.

Power glows.

Power floats.

Being a person who fulfilled both these tropes obviously meant that he was powerful.

And if something powerful was near you wouldn't you want to try and attack it?

It was the "let's stab this sleeping super-powerful ancient dragon in the eyeball to see if it felt it" sort of logic.

Anyway, Knite was pretty sure that the culprit was in the town.

He could sense a type of aura that didn't belong to the mortal realm. However, with in confusion of the battlefield, he couldn't quite pinpoint its location.

Knite signed, this was turning out more difficult than he thought it would.

Suddenly a great epiphany struck him.

If you can't pinpoint aura because of all the combatants, why don't you just decrease the number of combatants until you can pinpoint aura?

"That's it! I'm a genius."

Hitting the palm of his hand with the side of his fist, Knite took the time to admire this utter brilliance.

To find a needle in a hay stack just light a match and pray to the gods that the needle was fireproof. Creating some detailed plan took more effort than it had to. Being the slacker- no energy efficient person that he was, Knite was simply just going to brute force a solution.

"That's it boy. We're going to battle as well!"

Stroking the fiery mane of his horse, Knite yelled out in high spirits.

NEIGH!

With a cry the horse's glowing body flashed and changed shape, becoming longer and forming a sharp curve at one end.

A glowing white scythe. White fire flickered occasionally around the blade.

Having lost his support, Knite's body entered a state of freefall and fell straight into the midst of the monsters.

Despite the large fall, Knite landed perfectly fine.

"…"

Both monsters and defenders stared at him in a moment of obvious surprise. Knite grabbed his horse… no, scythe and spun it around a few time experimentally. Then with obvious joy he said:

"Sorry. But all of you will have to sleep for a bit~"

Without giving the monsters close to him any chance to react, Knite swung his scythe.

A monster fell. Aside from the light elemental seal placed on it, it was perfectly fine.

That was a given after all, Knite couldn't do anything that would upset the Elemental Realm too much.

The Elemental Realms were both an afterlife and a home for elementals.

If he were to kill all these monsters and defenders then the Elemental Realm would be flooded with newly departed souls.

This meant more complaints from the other Elemental Lords.

This led to more work for him to do.

More work meant less time to laze around.

Less time = bad.

Therefore, killing in mortal realm = bad.

To avoid this tragedy, Knite had placed the monster in a coma which would lift was soon as Knite left the immediate surroundings.

Marvelling sarcastically at his own foresight, Knite swung at another monster.

And another one.

And another.

"Kill him!"

"Focus fire!"

The monsters screamed and retaliated as he attacked them.

Bombardment of spells and arrows raced towards him, fired by monsters and defenders alike.

However, he the time they reached him, he had already moved to another location.

Darting around faster than they could react, Knite felled the monsters one by one.

A group of armoured monsters tried to surround him. His scythe flashed, bypassing the armour, flesh and blood, allowing his strike to seal all monsters at once.

Knite wasn't fighting just monsters through.

Occasionally, he jumped to the top of the town wall with a single acrobatic leap and sealed the defenders as well.

Thus, alternating between the defenders and monsters, Knite carried out his "carefully thought out" plan.

Some attacks moved faster than he expected, some he couldn't dodge.

In the face of these, Knite, hardened his aura to form a protective layer around him which protected him for the worst of even these attacks.

In Royal Road, aura was something like a hidden resource.

It was like an invisible stat or a easter egg which had many small effects that one might not notice at first.

It wasn't as though the players weren't aware of it either.

It had always been well debated about how attacks with the "killing intent" would seem to do more damage than "normal" attacks. And there had always been much speculation about what the baseline aura stat, "Fighting Spirit" did.

However, aside from those small things, not many players paid much attention to using or finding out more about how to use aura.

The reason was simple.

Of all the unlocked races so far, none of them had the ability to manipulate aura to a sufficient degree without intense training or a special class.

There were two ways in which aura could be controlled. The first was through emotions. The second was through the use of spells and skills.

Being able to manipulate aura to the extent of being able to use it in battle was something that almost exclusively available to only the ascended and divine races.

Thus, being an Ultimate level elemental as well as a Candidate for the position of the next Elemental Lord, Knite was fully aware of how to control and use his aura.

Hardening your aura could form a protective shell around yourself.

Releasing your aura could temporarily give you a large boost in power.

Focusing your aura could give attacks more penetrative force.

Resonating your aura with your surroundings allowed you to sense the aura of others.

These were basics of the basics.

For elementals, a lot of their physical condition could be deduced from the intensity of their glow. Factors like remaining Health, Mana, and overall power were all reflected by how brightly they glowed.

And aura. The state of their aura could also been deduced visually.

Unlike most skills, using aura techniques did not have to consume mana. Practitioners more adept with magic and arcane abilities were able to use mana as a substitute fuel for these techniques but in general, aura was fuelled by stamina.

Thus, completely decimating both sides, Knite began to narrow down the place where the strange aura was. 


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 2

Note: Godou still thinks that Hel is a guy. However for simplicity's sake I will be referring to Hel as a girl from now on. Similarly, while Knite is of neutral gender, I will be referring to him as a male.

"So yeah… Oh hey would you look at that, a monster's broken through. Better go kill it!"

Unable to stand the awkward atmosphere she had just created, Helena Bladerton, or Hel as she called herself, scampered away to intercept the groggy monster that had broken past the defenders on the wall.

However, by the time she reached it, it had already been shot down by Harris.

Having lost her purpose, Hel looked back at Godou only to see him chatting away with Inori.

A twitch of uneasiness developed in her chest. Almost akin to jealousy.

Well it would be too awkward to just go back right after running away…

Hel took a deep breath and calmed her state of mind, storing her emotions in a place to be channelled through later.

The reason for her jealousy wasn't because of the sight of Godou getting intimate with Inori though.

Hel's bond with Inori was not so fragile as to break because of some man after all. She also knew too well that the battlefield was no place for such petty emotions to control one's self.

To put it plainly, Hel had just been envious of how easily they could talk to each other like that.

The atmosphere in the Kallamore Knight training centre was completely different from this sense of "freedom" she was experiencing right now.

The necessity of formality and displaying your respect for to your seniors and elders was something that was hammered deeply into all Kallamore Knights during their training. Trainees were to follow strict rules and routines that would help them develop self-efficiency and teach them the skills they needed as a knight. The atmosphere in the training was almost oppressive. The trainees had almost no control over what they could do.

However, this changed as soon as they became apprenticed to a Great Knight and graduated. After becoming a Novice Knight of Kallamore, they were no longer restrained by the strict rules and routines of their instructors. They were free! Or so they thought.

However, years of rigorous training developed into a habit and Hel found that life was no different from when she was still being trained. The only difference was that she no longer had a teacher to rely on or seek advice from.

Granted, her master was still in the same town as her but she could no longer depend on him to fix all the problems which she couldn't solve herself like an ignorant apprentice.

There were 3 main phases of training for Kallamore Knights. The first phase involved trainees learning the basics of combat through drills and performing missions in platoons and squadrons. Technically, one would be considered a Kallamore Knight after finishing this part of training.

If a trainee managed to attract the attention of Great Knight of Kallamore, they could be offered a position as an apprentice to that Great Knight. Learning more advanced techniques and strategies from an experienced master, this was the second phase of their training.

Hel was currently at the third phase of training. Having been approved as a Kallamore Knight by her master, the only thing left for her to do was gain more experience herself. Thus, she was a Novice Kallamore Knight.

Although, she was now a Novice Knight of Kallamore who had the freedom to do what she wanted, she found herself severely lacking in any kind of self-confidence.

If a problem arises how would she be able to solve it? She could no longer rely on the wisdom and guidance of her master.

After discovering the identity of her master, the legendary dragonslayer Badas Sky, people tended to look at her with the same awe and admiration that should only be directed at her master. Those looks betrayed the expectations that they had for her. The expectations that she would be every bit as capable as her master.

But how could she ever do anything on the same level as her master?

What could she ever do to match up to the reputation of a Knight said to have slain a dragon?

If people looked at her for guidance and protection, what could she ever do?

She was neither experienced nor strong enough at the moment and yet countless civilians would be relying on her protection.

To be truthful, this newfound independence scared her.

To fight this fear, Hel had tried to imitate the awe inspiring manner and actions of her master. However, she was not him. Thus she was not able to hold the same charismatic presence as her master. (Admittedly, that might have been because she was unwilling to copy her master's strange eccentricities)

She wasn't that social of a person in the first place. And now that she was outside of the familiar constricting atmosphere of the Kallamore Knight training centre, she was completely unsure of how to interact with other people.

Even act of apologising and giving Godou her dagger had taken a lot of courage. In fact Hel almost would have preferred to be forced to fight an entire monster village empty handed.

Thus, she was jealous of Inori for being able to interact with people so easily.

She was envious of Godou's easy going atmosphere that seemed to completely lack the stress and worries that she was facing.

Inori aside, Hel wanted to get to know the rest of her party better. However, she didn't know how. Rather than rushing it, she had decided it get close to each person one by one. One step at a time.

The reason she chose Godou first was because she somehow felt that they could get along well. Although, he was a quiet guy who wasn't lively and didn't have a way with words, she somehow felt attracted to him

B But it wasn't in a romantic sense or anything.

No, it was probably just the sense of wanting to be friends?

Right?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

A loud explosion from the top of the wall broke Hel from her musing. Although explosions were not uncommon in a siege where mages were involved, this explosion was particularly loud. Accompanying the loud explosion were battle cries coming from the defending side.

"Kill him!"

"Focus fire!"

Hel suddenly had the impression that a horrifyingly oppressive presence was drawing near close by. What was going on?

There were a bunch of flashes coming from the other side of the wall. Whatever was casing the commotion seemed to be approaching.

Hel hesitated, part of her wanted to investigate while reason told her that she shouldn't abandon her party in this sort of situation.

Chaos was erupting from the top of the wall. The yells and screams were becoming louder. Whatever was causing this commotion wasn't normal. Was it a boss monster that caused this turmoil?

Hel turned and made eye contact with the most collected player present, Harris. Harris also seemed confused but shook his head when he noticed Hel's glaze. Then he pointed to where Spade, Godou and Irori were standing.

So he wants just to regroup huh? Indeed, that might be for the best.

Hel started to make her way towards the rest of the group. Just as she started to move something fell from the top of the wall.

No, rather than falling it would be more accurate to say that it jumped from the top of the wall.

Despite the high drop, it landed lightly on the ground, completely defying the laws of physics. A monstrously powerful fighting spirit accompanied its arrival as well as a brilliant white radiance.

Hel unconsciously took a few steps back as she got a clear view of what had fallen.

A pile of bodies, monsters and men.

And a figure that exuded an overwhelming sense of presence.

Shining with light. Clutching an ominously burning scythe. An armoured warrior.

Spiked shoulder plates. Masked visage. A brilliant cloak of white.

About 2 metres tall, the warrior stood wrapped in robe-like armour which also appeared to be part of his body.

Fierce eyes shone brilliantly from the depths of the mask, burning with fighting spirit.

**You have been affected by High Elements Pressure.**  
**- You have been placed in a state of fear**  
**- Fighting spirit has fallen**  
**- All stats have been reduced by 60%**  
**- Skills and spells are likely to fail**

By merely making eye contact with the warrior, Hel could feel her body stiffen and freeze from terror. Even with the high fighting spirit of a Knight of Kallamore, this warrior was able to make her tremble by just being in its presence!

This is…

Just like the Peerless Dragon skill!

The only other time she had experienced such a situation had been when she witnessed her master's battle with a dragon.

Back then she couldn't even fathom how powerful the dragon was. However, she had grown since then.

Now she could tell.

This thing was much stronger than the dragon!

The warrior looked around and with a surprisingly enthusiastic voice it yelled:

"Found it!"

It was that yell that snapped Hel out of her trance. This warrior was insanely strong. It probably wouldn't be incorrect to say that it was in a different league from her.

However, if she didn't step up to stop it, who would? To cower in fear whilst a monster ravaged her town, this would be a stain on her honour which could never be removed!

She opened her mouth to yell a battle cry, but no sound came out.

Frustrated, she stabbed her sword into the stone ground, the impact of the hit rebounding through her arm and snapping her out of her trance. Hel took a deep breath.

"Attack! If that gets past us then Tellap is doomed!"

**You have used Rallying Call.**  
**- State of fear has been dispelled**  
**- Stat debuffs have been reduced by 40%**

A weak cry amid the suffocating pressure of the battlefield. There was silence. And then…

"That's right get him!"

"Blast him!"

Hel's rallying call was successful in rousing the fallen spirits of her fellow defenders. As others started their own rallying calls and launched their attacks at the warrior, the effects of his intimation slowing but surely weakened.

"Oh!"

The warrior seemed impressed by their efforts. Nevertheless, the combined attacks of all the defenders present didn't even seem to faze him.

A barrage of ranged attacks, both magical and physical hurtled towards him. The warrior suddenly let out an explosion of light and created a shockwave, neutralising all of the attacks in one go.

Everyone present tensed, but no further attacks were thrown.

The warrior looked over at something as if torn.

Then, he turned around and approached the one who started the rally, her.

Hel tensed. Every fibre of her body was telling her to run away. To get away from this… this monster. But still she stood her ground. If the leader of the charge doesn't set up a good example, what can you expect the men behind them to do?

The warrior seemed impressed by her foolhardy courage. He suddenly pointed his scythe at her and declared a voice loud enough for everyone present to hear.

"So such people still exist in the mortal world… Brave human, tell me your name."

"When challenging someone to a duel, it is good etiquette to state your name first. Nevertheless, I will answer you. I am Hel Bladerton! A Knight of Kallamore!"

Desperately controlling her body from shaking, Hel did her best to appear strong.

Surprisingly the warrior did not seem angered by her response. Instead he laughed and said:

"How rude of me. I did not intend on challenging just you to a duel though. I, for one, am not fond of bullying the weak. Against one or against many it makes no difference. I came here to perform I task but I hope you all will be able to provide me a minor distraction before I go to complete that task!"

Rather than arrogance, the whole statement had been delivered as if the result of their fight would be set in stone. The sad thing was, Hel knew the warrior was right.

Continuing, the warrior declared his identity.

"I am Knite, Candidate for the position of the Elemental Lord of Light. Not counting the Elemental Lord of Light, I am the tied as the strongest Light Elemental currently in existence! And I challenge you all…"

The warrior, Knite made a sweeping motion with his hand, indicating everyone present.

"… to a duel! Those who don't wish to participate can leave. However, if you get in my way, I will take care of you regardless!"

Knite suddenly ran at her, launched a horizontal sweeping slash. Fast!

But considering the amount of power he had displayed before, surely Knite would be more capable than this. Was he holding back his power to enjoy the fight more?

**You have activated Blood Burn Release. For 1 second the following bonuses have been applied:**

**X2 Reaction Speed**  
**+ 50% Movement Speed**  
**+ 50% All other Movement Speed buffs**

**Due to the strain on your body, you have lost 300 Health.**

Hel had no more time think as the scythe blade approached her, forcing throwing herself back she dodged the blade by a hairbreadth.

Dodging alone wouldn't win the fight so Hel stomped the ground and her strongest attack. Her sword became engulfed with a harsh orange light as she countered with a heavy vertical strike.

"Impact Smasher!"

Clang! The sound of weapons colliding!

Although, she could activate skills silently, Hel's master had always encouraged her to verbalise them. It made it easier to place spirit, to place aura into, he had said.

For normal humans, aura was controlled by emotions and emotions could be more easily expressed through sounds. Thus using sound with attacks had a higher change of enhancing them. Like "Kiai" of martial artists or the grunting of professional tennis players. Something along the lines of that.

Hel's attack was blocked by the shaft of the scythe. Had a normal monster tried to block her attack in such a manner, they would have been stunned through the weight of her blow.

However, Knite was no ordinary monster.

Shifting his scythe around Knite swung and executed a counter attack of his own.

A swift diagonal slash from left shoulder to right hip!

An assassin type defender suddenly appeared in between them and leapt at Knite's throat, dagger in hand. At the same time a warrior armed with a massive hammer leapt from above, intending to smash Knite's head in with the hammer.

"Tch"

Knite was forced to change his attack from this two pronged assault. Altering the trajectory of his attack, Knite switched targets and slashed the assassin. Simultaneously, he used the opposite end of his scythe shaft to parry the warrior's hammer and redirect it to the ground.

Whirling his scythe around, Knite cut the warrior as well.

A seal like pattern formed around both the assassin and the warrior. The equipment of both fighters showed no sides of damage from these attacks.

Knite returned his attention to Hel.

Hel tried to gauge Knite's power from this short exchange. No good, Knite was holding back too much for her to get an estimate of his real abilities.

Just defending wasn't something that you would call a duel so Hel initiated an attack of her own this time.

Making an offensive stance, Helraised her sword horizontally and launching a series of quick jabs at Knite. Initially, Knite deflected each of these strikes with the middle of his scythe shaft. After a few blows, he stopped blocking and simply dodged the attacks, calming advancing closer and closer.

Realising this, Hel did a feint and changed her attack pattern, mixing in all sorts of different attacks. Nevertheless, they all failed to hit Knite directly and soon he was able to easy dodge these as well.

Timing, reach, attack pattern. Within such a short period of time, Knite had completely deduced and memorised Hel's capabilities.

Having learnt all he could about Hel, Knite suddenly when on the offensive. A horizontal swing from the right!

It was a wide swing and almost seemed as if he was testing what Hel could do. Nevertheless, it took everything Hel had to avoid the attack.

**You have activated Blood Burn Release. For 1 second the following bonuses have been applied:**

**X2 Reaction Speed**  
**+ 50% Movement Speed**  
**+ 50% All other Movement Speed buffs**

**Due to the strain on your body, you have lost 900 Health.**

The flicking white flame on the scythe blade scorched her slightly, damaging her visor which then partially obscuring her vision.

Crap! I can't see.

Knite moved to deal the finishing blow but was stopped as Ice Wall spell cast by mages erupted between them.

Although, that wasn't enough to stop Knite for more than a second, Hel was able to use that time to leap away from Knite, throwing her damaged helmet off as she did so.

Immediately afterwards, Knite destroyed the Ice Wall and was bombarded by a series of attacks from everyone present. Unable to dodge, Knite was struck by all these attacks.

From up close, Hel noticed that something strange was going on. It almost seemed as if Knite was being protected by a thin layer of light around his body.

Other melee fighters rushed to her aid and started to engage Knite but from the looks of it they wouldn't stop him for long.

Hel took this moment to take a deep breath to reorganise herself, her fear forgotten in the thrill of battle.

A flash of light. A whirling blade. Within seconds Knite disabled the melee fighters who had rushed to engage him.

Hel noticed a white seal like pattern around the fallen fighters. She noticed similar patterns on the bodies that Knite had originally fallen down with. Why would you go through all the trouble of sealing corpses?

Unless… Knite hadn't killed anyone and had just rendered them all unable to battle?

Hel shook her head clear of such thoughts. This was no time to be thinking about such things!

Not giving Knite a chance to relax, Hel decided it was time to enter the fray once again. She shifted her weight forward and focused mana to her feet. A charging type footstep technique!

Knite had spotted her hurtling towards him.

Anticipating her speed, he made horizontal slash from the side.

Using the longer reach of his scythe, Knite was aiming to cut her before she reached him!

But Hel had already predicted that he would do something like this. No matter how looked at it, her attack was like a reckless that was asking to be countered. In other words, it was a move that would bait out a counter attack.

Knite probably knew this as well but went along with it anyway. A warrior with complete confidence in his physical abilities.

But it was only because Knite was such a person that Hel dared to take a risk.

The most obvious thing she could do was to stop for a split second.

Wait for Knite's attack to pass her.

And then continue on with the attack while Knite was exposed. However, considering the difference between their speeds, that sort of attack would lead to nothing but failure.

But, if you can't match the defensive abilities of a dragon, then simply outdo it in offensive prowess! If you can't beat Knite's overall speed, then simply outdo him in instantaneous speed!

Hel stepped within Knite's range of attack.

Time appeared to slow down.

Knite attacked. Scythe blade rapidly incoming!

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Simultaneously releasing her aura and activating multiple buffs, Hel focused everything she had into increasing her speed.

**You have released your Battle Aura**

**x 3 Movement speed**  
**X 3 Damage Output**  
**+ 50% Damage reduction**

**You have activated Warrior Frenzy.**

**+ 20% Strength**  
**+ 25% Agility**  
**+ 15% Fighting Spirit**

**You have activated Knight Charge.**

**+ 15% Movement Speed**  
**+ Ability to accelerate to top speed has improved.**  
**+ Charging attacks have a lower chance of being blocked**

**You have activated Step-in**

**+ 300% Movement Speed for a single step**

**You have activated Fleeting Steps**

**+ 20% Agility**  
**+ 15% Movement Speed**

**You have activated Blood Burn Release. For 1 second the following bonuses have been applied:**

**X2 Reaction Speed**  
**+ 50% Movement Speed**  
**+ 50% All other Movement Speed buffs**

**Due to the strain on your body, you have lost 2700 Health.**

Enveloped in her blazing orange aura, Hel ducked under the path of Knite's attack.

Clang! The sound of blade scrapping on shield.

Even with all of her buffs, Hel wasn't able to completely avoid Knite's attack. Nevertheless, she managed to deflect it away from her body using her shield.

Chance!

Having mostly avoided Knite's attack, Hel charged her sword with mana and transferred her aura to it. Time for a counter!

"Sword Wave!"

Hel swung her sword in the upward stroke. A mass of power gathered around it…

A line shaped explosion erupted as her attack scored a direct hit against Knite.

**Due to high speed, you attack has done 381% additional damage**

Hel spun past Knite from the momentum of her charge, skidding to a stop after a few metres.

All this occurred in the span of a second.

Panting, Hel turned around to see what affect her attack had on Knite.

There had been no effect.

No way… To have such a high defence on top of his evasive capabilities…

Hel gritted her teeth, reading herself for another exchange. Her shield arm felt strangely numb.

Knite looked at her, but then looked away as if search for another opponent to fight.

Wait what are you…

Hel wanted to question him but words wouldn't come out. Her vision started to blacken. She noticed a white seal like pattern on her shield arm.

Crap…

**You have been affected by a Light Elemental Seal.**  
**- Until the caster of this seal is no longer in the immediate area, you will lose consciousness**  
**- Due to high curse resistance, the effect of this seal is slightly weakened**


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 3

Turning back time to when Knite delivered his challenge…

"… I am the tied as the strongest Light Elemental currently in existence! And I challenge you all… to a duel! Those who don't want to participate can leave however, if you stand in my way I will crush you regardless!"

Making such an outrageous request, the culprit of the commotion, Knite made a run at Hel. Watching this scene from a far, Godou got the feeling that he had somehow gotten involved in something troublesome again.

Knite attacked Hel with his scythe who barely managed to dodge. The other defenders also jumped into the fray turning it all into a messy free for all. Despite this, Knite handled the situation flawlessly, managing to take down everyone who entered his reach with a single strike.

Hel must be quite skilled to be able to avoid so many of Knite's attacks, Godou realised. Though, from the looks of it even Hel was just barely holding on.

While he was watching this, some part of Godou's mind had already started to formulate a way of beating such a powerful opponent, but with the situation as it was now, Godou was slumped. What could he do?

Hello? Testing… testing 1,2,3 Can you hear me?

A telepathic voice suddenly sounded in Godou's head. Was it Ferrex? No the voice was different from the friend which Godou hadn't heard from for quite some time… That voice… wasn't it that fellow in the midst of the free for all combat right now?! Godou couldn't help but exclaim his name.

"Knite?!"

Yo bingo! That's me over there! Ha ha ha I'm glad you can actually hear me. Right now I am talking to you through a special channel that only people with a certain level of power can tap into. Since you can hear me you must be strong or have high potential.

Godou looked over at Knite. He was currently exchanging intense blows with a group of defenders. In the midst of this, Godou saw Knite give a small wave in Godou's direction.

Seriously! There should be a limit to how easy you can take things. Simultaneously talking to Godou fighting, Knite continued his conversation with Godou.

To make a long story short, I'm here is because the God of Lou is pissed at you for destroying his temple and as a result of a bunch of connections I have been sent here as punish you. So anyway… please have a fight to the death with me~

"Hell no! Heck I wasn't even the one who launched the attack that destroyed that temple! Also I heard that Athene appeased Lou's wrath!"

A blunt and definite refusal to a blunt and straightforward challenge. "Please, have a fight to death with me~" as if anyone who agree to such a ridiculous statement! Though, in retrospect, Godou realised that he could actually name a few people who would wholeheartedly agree. In the fact, it wouldn't be surprising of those people were the ones to suggested the challenge first.

However! Godou was a pacifist! There was no way that he would agree to such a- Wait a minute… Godou forceful reminded himself that this was just a game. Even if he died once he would still respawn afterwards won't he?

Ah but you still where partially responsible for the act so yeah… Lou isn't going to let you off until you're punished. About Athene, that was just lip service to stop her from interfering… Conversely, I was only told to attempt to punish you so if I die, the whole mission will be rendered null since it's going to take more than Lou can compensate to send me on the same mission again after my body regenerates in the Elemental Realm and stabilises enough for me to leave the immortal realms again.

"Ok, just to confirm, if I let you kill me will also be the end of your mission right? Moreover, what did you do to everyone else?"

As a pacifist, it was obvious to choose the option which involved the least amount of conflict. If it was just one death, Godou was sure he could swallow his pride and just brush it off.

About everyone else, I simply placed them in a coma which will lift as soon as I leave. Can't interfere too much with this world you see. And actually since foreigners have the ability to respawn after death as well I don't think a single death is enough to appease Lou. More like Lou wants me to kill you until you reach level 1 again.

"T This. What a vengeful god!"

I agree.

So to appease Lou's anger he had to die 100+ times? Don't f*** with me.

While Godou was a believer of pacifism, he was not a believer of non-aggression. Thus even if a peaceful resolution could be obtained, it didn't mean that he would give up aiming for retaliation if you pushed him too far.

During the time they were having this conversation, Hel was confronting Knite again. Hel rushed at Knite at high speed, orange lights blazing around her body reminiscent of the transformation auras from a certain popular shounen anime cough cough dragon ball z cough…

Clang!

Hel's figure suddenly vanished and instantaneously reappeared behind Knite, a line shaped explosion erupted from Knite's location.

Then the smoke cleared. Godou saw that a mass of white light had gathered in front of Knite's body like a shield, protecting him from most of the damage. Hel collapsed, a white seal like pattern which Knite had managed to place on her shield started to expand and cover her body.

Seeing Hel fall, Harris quickly tried to regain control of the remaining defenders. The defenders quickly organised themselves under his leadership but still they fell due to the overwhelming difference between their abilities and Knite's.

Since Knite had declared that he won't attack if you ran away and realising that the monsters hadn't attacked the area in a while due to Knite's presence, many defenders simply deserted their posts as the fight dragged on to watch the situation from afar.

Knite suddenly rushed at Harris, slashing with his scythe. Harris and a group of players around him at the time (including Spade), burst into grey flames as they died.

Oh crap I forgot to use the seal. Oh well, they were foreigners so it shouldn't matter too much.

Belatedly, Knite, noted his mistake though he didn't sound all that sorry about it. This fellow is just one of those battle maniacs who get lost in fighting isn't he? Godou made such observations as he watched helplessly from the sidelines.

Godou felt something tug on his sleeve. He turned and saw Inori. Hmm? Had her hair and eye colour always been gold? Well, it still didn't change the fact that she still looked like a child.

In her child-like voice which was surprisingly calm, she asked him the question, eyes brimming with innocence.

"Godou, the reason Knite is here is because of some misunderstanding about you which can only be solved when one of you dies right? I couldn't hear all of it but I got the gist of your conversation."

How pure. Or rather how trusting. This level of trust bordered on plain naivety.

He hadn't really noticed it before due to the strangeness of their first encounter and because of the tense war situation but Inori really had an angelic atmosphere around her. As if you could be healed by just being in her presence.

Moreover did she just say that she heard the conversation? Didn't Knite say that channel was restricted to people who had a certain level of power? Such doubts entered Godou's mind.

"Yeah, pretty much. Looks like the only way out of it is-"

Godou felt like he was just making excuses but Inori interrupted him before he could finish.

"Then I will also lend you my assistance. The battle so far has given me the time I need to make preparations. Moreover, I will not let Hel's effort go in vain! Holy Barrier!"

Godou suddenly had the sensation to that a great power was flowing through Inori. Inori made a swiping motion with her left hand as if drawing a line in the air. As if following her actions a wall of light erupted from Knite's feet forcing him to jump back.

Three more walls of light were created around Knite, all four barriers surrounding him and forming in a large square.

A high grade holy barrier? What's more I sense a strong divinity fuelling these barriers. A Holy Spirit contractor? And a high ranking one at that as well. Ha ha ha ha… this mission is turning out surprisingly entertaining.

A Holy Spirit contractor? Did this mean that Iori was actually someone amazing? Come to think of it, Inori had been one of the few priests who had treated him… as normally as she could under the circumstances of their first meeting…

Godou vaguely remembered reading about spirits in his basic education. Spirits were beings that had control over various elements and while low ranking ones were merely summons for magicians like shamans and witches, high ranking ones where often worshiped as the gods and guardians of the land.

If Inori's contracted spirit was indeed a high ranking spirit then… there might just be a way out of this!

"Gegorus! I release you from your bindings! Take power from the land to manifest and bring salvation!"

In response to Inori's chant, there was a surge of power from the ground as the leylines clustered around the church of Freya in the town flared.

Inside the barriers which Knite was trapped behind, a heatwave-like disturbance appeared. A ray of light shone from the heavens and struck the disturbance. The light gathered around the disturbance in the form of flakes, shaping it and giving it a physical form.

The disturbance grew in a vaguely humanoid figure. Multiple feathered wings grew on its back. Silver and gold plated armour appeared around the figure. A golden spear appeared in its hands.

A high class holy spirit that was worshipped as a god in some areas. It was a divine presence that practically radiated with power.

It was only due to the clustering of leylines near the church that this holy spirit was able to maintain a level of power not far from its original strength despite being bound to a contract. Had their location been somewhere of less spiritual significance, then the spirit's strength would also drop accordingly.

Somewhat resembling an 12 winged angel wearing knight's armour, the holy spirit, Gegorus, made its presence majestically known while floating in the sky within the boundaries of the barriers.

As you have called ,I have answered milady. Now show me where our adversary lies and I, high class Holy Spirit Gegorus, will punish them for their-

Then Gegorus caught sight of Knite.

f***.

"Well that's not very nice, High Class Holy Spirit Gegorus-san"

Knite's reaction was somewhat hurt in response to Gegorus's 180 degree change in attitude.

Milady, just to confirm are you going to make me fight this Elemental Lord?

Godou heard Gegorus ask Inori the question in a somewhat reluctant tone. Seeing Inori nod slowly, Gegorus appeared to pale. Watching Gegorus's reaction, Godou was also starting to have his doubts. Was Knite stronger than a god?

"Hmmm? I'm not an Elemental Lord, I'm just a candidate. Come on, I don't bite… too hard that is…"

Tch don't lie! The only difference between an Elemental Lord and a Candidate is that the candidates can still respawn and aren't stuck in the Immortal Realms.

Seeing the first opponent he didn't have to hold back against, Knite was even trying to encourage Gegorus into fighting him while the said opponent still tried to rebuke him. Seeing the crowd of people who were obviously eager to see him duke it out with Knite, Gegorus could only sigh and tearfully plead:

Okay, but please be gentle with me!

Without any further warning, Gegorus threw its spear downwards at Knite. Although the spear was merely thrown, it would be more accurate to describe it like blasting an artillery round.

There was a huge explosion as the spear struck the ground which was contained inside the barriers.

As the smoke cleared Godou saw Knite standing relatively fine, completely covered in white light which tremendously increased the pressure he emitted. This as probably the aura stuff Ferrex had been talking about earlier, Godou realised.

In comparison to Hel's aura release, Knite's was more compressed and less spread out. (Sort of like the lighting release armour of the raikage in another certain popular ninja shounen cough cough… naruto… cough cough).

"Hahahahaha!"

Laughing with joy, Knite jumped, bouncing off the sides of the barriers to slash at his airborne opponent, his speed noticeably increased with his aura released. Gegorus somehow summoned its spear back into its hand to block the attack.

Thus a battle of tremendous powers began in the town of Tellap.

The blank world of almost all empty space shook as the powers holding it in place oscillated wildly. This blank world was a makeshift space created on the borderlines of the mortal and immortal realms. To put it bluntly, being in it was like having one foot in the grave and the other one out of it. That sort of thing.

And it was starting to collapse.

"Crap this is bad!"

Ferrex desperately tried to stabilise the empty world. It was his only link to the mortal realm, a personal space hastily made from his very essence. It was his "soul world".

It seemed he had been getting ahead of himself trying to recreate his body like in his current state. Given that most of his powers were currently allocated to sealing away the effects of that thing, casting such a large and complex spell required too much out of him.

Thinking quickly, Ferrex "grabbed" hold of the strange energy that flowed from the immortal realms and tried to stabilise his soul world with it. The world shook rebelliously in his "grasp". For some reason, this strange energy seemed to feel a lot like the Sacred Energy used by Divine Saints thus using his experience, Ferrex somehow managed to stabilise the collapsing process.

He sighed dejectedly.

A few years ago he would have been able to cast the spell to needed flawlessly.

But the present reality was harsh.

There were three things he needed to maintain to recreate his body. He could only do two of them at once.

It really was too much for him to multicast between the complex spells of maintaining the seal, maintaining his soul world and manifesting a advanced multi-circle spell complex enough to create a physical body.

Heck, normally using 2 circle genetic spells were the utmost limit he was willing to divert away from sealing. For some reason, he could feel the flow of a type of energy he had never felt before which allowed him to maintain his soul world.

The fact that the spell he just used wasn't his first attempted at recreating his body either made it all the more depressing. Ferrex tried to keep his mindset positive. Who knows maybe I'll just stumble across a solution accidentally.

Part of him was tempted to just momentarily release the seal and quickly cast the spell he needed. But reason told him that it would be too late to readjust the seal if he did that. Casting his Heaven's Calling spells against Seirph had loosened the seal too much and the buffer zone he had created had all but been eaten away.

If he were to loosen the seal again for even a moment…

[Yes that would be the inevitable outcome.]

Eh? Did I just hear a voice just now? Ferrex wondered if the solitude had driven him crazy.

[Indeed you did.]

"Did you just- Who-"

[Who am I and how do I know your thoughts you ask? That's a tricky question.]

A distinctly feminine voice answered him.

Ferrex looked wildly around. There was no one around. As if amused by his efforts, the disembodied voice continued to converse with him lightly in an almost sing along tone.

[I am the creator of all and the ruler of all. Thus I am privy to all the thoughts and actions of every inhabitant in this "existence". I am one who goes by many names. Actually it's quite troublesome to explain.]

"Arghh!"

Ferrex suddenly felt as if his head was about to split open as the "strange energy" concentrated itself around him and engulfed him at him. A torrent of information forcefully streamed itself into his mind.

[Oh my… Accessing the memory from the frame via Divine Power through your link to the Immortal Realms. You really are quite something. That should answer a lot of the questions you wanted to ask shouldn't it now? To forcefully have information retrieved and absorbed to you, I can feel your suffering. Want a cookie to ease the pain?]

"You… what do you want with me?"

[Well you're no fun~]

Ferrex clutched his head. The sheer amount of information he had just received… was more than he could comprehend instantly. However, it was enough for him to make out the gist of what was happening. The one speaking to him right now… Was the one who started everything… An existence than not even Gods could comprehend…

There was no contest.

What he was speaking was undisputedly most powerful entity in all the existing realms.

[Oh isn't that sweet? You're making me blush~ Oh wait, I don't have a body~]

Yep, this was most powerful being in Versailles… Why was it that he didn't feel any need to act respectfully? Ferrex wondered.

The other party continued speaking as if pretending not to overhear Ferrex's last thoughts.

[But you are certainly an interesting existence yourself you know? An irregular even amongst the Divine Saint Variants… Statistically, you represent an occurrence of overlapping random probabilities so small that it would be rounded off to 0 even at after computing 1000 digits. Within this whole simulation, there has only been one other just like you. That's even rarer than the Overlords and there have only been 8 of them. Well… 9 of them.]

"I mean no offence but you're not here just to talk to me about this right?"

[Straight to the point? Well, I better take that approach since I have to fix an anomaly that just popped up. To put it simply, your Overlord friend is one of my assigned observation targets and I just happened to spot you while I was passing by. Since you were struggling so desperately on your own I thought I would help you out].

Immediately after that was said, Ferrex noticed the change. There was no change in his immediate surroundings, the empty space stayed an empty space. But he could feel them. He was no longer blocked from communicating to the mortal realm.

The flow of strange energy, no it would be more accurate to describe it as Divine Power, within his soul world was now much more stable than it had been originally.

[I have stabilised your temporary realm and strengthen your connection with the mortal realm. What you were lacking was a suitable place holder, a key stone, though from the looks of it you would have managed to stabilise it sooner or later. I have adjusted the attributes of your key stone to match what was required. I won't recreate your body for you though. Cuz that would be cheating~ You will have to work on that yourself. Now, ciao theorigin#ucantbeatme_lollookatthosenoobs logging out~]

[Oh and by the way. Don't tell anyone about me talking to you else things might get messy. Now seriously, A.I._Goddess has left the chatroom ~]

What a strange way of saying goodbye. Ferrex was at lost with how to respond. Ultimately, he decided to just ignore it and focus his attentions on the outside world which he had been unable to connect to for quite some time.

What he saw as a shocking situation.

God damn it Godou! Something happened again when I wasn't looking didn't it?

CHUP…

An obscene watery sound.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! How does it feel to stab yourself some many times into me!"

Ah! My arm! It doesn't bend that way!

Some time had passed since the battle between Knite and the holy spirit Gegorus began. Although it seemed like Gegorus was able to keep up in the beginning, the difference between the base powers of the two fighters began to show as the battle dragged on.

Garghhhhh! Okay now it does.

The battle was being coming quite noisy but for Godou, what was more distracting was...

…! …Ku, it was a sensation he couldn't describe with words. It was slippery but warm… and Inori's lips felt so soft… Looks of contempt were being given to him from the remaining defenders as they glared at him as if he were some sort of pedophile.

Why? Oh why did I set myself up in this sort of situation?

Godou could only regret his lack of foresight. Although what he and Inori were doing was necessary for the sake of battle, why did it have to be through such an obscene method?

What they were doing right now was…

Not kissing.

No, definitely not that. (Author note: Muhahahahaha how many of you got your hopes up?)

Right now Inori was draining Godou's Divine Aura and using it to power up a spell tag that she was holding. Basically, she was using the same principle as using her contracted spirit's power to cast spells only this time Godou was acting as the power source.

After summoning Gegorus and realising that Gegorus power alone would not be enough, Inori had started started trying to cast a new spell using a spell tag, a rectangular strip of paper with a predesigned magic circle drawn on it, as a casting assistance device. However, maintaining the barriers and keeping Gegorus summoned was already past her and Gegorus's limit.

Thus, Godou had suggested that she use his power instead of Gegorus since he also had divinity. However, due to the fact that Inori did not have a contract with Godou and due to the fact that Godou wasn't a spirit, Inori could only intake a foreign power through… oral means.

Thus, after much hesitation and cursing at why everything always had to go that direction lately, Godou tried to go for his usual method of transferring power orally. In other words, mouth to mouth.

However, blushing furiously, Inori had pushed him away stuttering:

"W Why did you go directly with mouth to mouth? W Wouldn't it have still worked if I… dunno… sucked on your finger or something?"

With the sudden realisation that something like that also would have worked, Godou berated himself be getting to used to participating in such activities in the real world that it almost developed into a habit.

Thus lead to their current situation.

Yep. Inori was simply sucking on his index finger.

All the while he was being stabbed by the looks of contempt that the people close to them were giving him.

Speaking of which, Inori was draining out aura from him at a terrifying rate. His stamina, which was closely linked to his aura dropped significantly but for the sake of charging up a thump card that could take out Knite, Godou will himself to hold on.

As a result, the following window appeared and his physical fatigue faded away instantly.

**Overpowering Will has activated.**

**+ Fighting spirit will continually increase in battle.**  
**+ You are able to overcome your limits. Stamina has become infinite.**

**Survival Instinct has activated.**

**+ Damage output increases the worst your condition gets.**  
**+ Increased ability to detect danger.**

Thus time passed while they were performing such a ritual. There was a particularly loud explosion from inside the barrier.

Godou turned his attention to the fight.

Gegorus was lying battered on the ground, Knite was standing over him, stabbing him with the blunt end of his scythe.

However, Gegorus wasn't the only one hurt in this position as he made all his wings harden like blades and impaled themselves through Knite's aura and into various parts of his body. In the place of blood, sparks seemed to be emitted from Knite's wounds.

"It seems this is the end."

Knite spoke somewhat mournfully as he watched Gegorus's form start to blur and fade.

Cough… cough... You monster… This is the mortal realm where your power is restricted but… With all my strength… I could only take out about around 30% of your health?!

"Be proud, it's been a long time since I met someone in the mortal realm capable to pushing me that far."

Damn so this is the difference been an A rank race and a B rank race… I always knew that the power gap between the mortal and immortal realms was large… but for it to be this great…

With a parting statement that gave off the feeling of "I have no regrets", Gegorus's figure shimmered and vanished, probably to recharge and heal from his damage since he couldn't die due to his contract.

Now that he had taken care of his playmate, Knite turned his attention to the outside world, deactivating his released aura as he did so.

His wordless silence as he saw Godou's current situation was somehow more hurtful then the glares before.

Probably deciding to ignore them for now, Knite looked that the transparent barrier curiously.

Slash. Slash. Slash. The sound of cutting wind.

Knite cut at the barrier several times again with his scythe. Visible scratch marks appeared on the surface of the barrier.

"Interesting. What a powerful barrier! Normal attacks will only scratch it I see."

"Yes that right! Now you've already had your fight so please give up on your task and go!"

Appearing genuinely interested, Knite uttered his observations. Unable to do anything else, Godou tried to convince Knite to leave peacefully(?). But ignoring Godou's protest Knite continued:

"What about an attack charged with mana then?"

Knite pulled his scythe back and gripped it with both hands. Although it was purely coincidental, Knite reminded Godou of a cleanup batter getting ready to strike the pitcher's ball out of the field.

Godou felt a "power" flow from Knite to the blade of his scythe. Was this the flow of mana?

Without giving them anything more time for preparation, Knite swung his scythe.

Slash!

Smiiiiiiiik! The sound of cracking glass.

A trench like formation of cracks formed on the surface of the barrier, tracing out the path where Knite's attack landed. It seemed like the barrier was weaker now that Gegorus had left. But still, the barrier held.

"Ho! It can withstand this level of an attack as well huh? What about an attack charged with aura?"

With the enthusiasm of a child given a new toy to play with, Knite set his scythe standing on the ground and raised his fist in a stance.

"Hah!"

A thin layer of white light covered Knite's already glowing fist, dazzling them with its brilliance. This was probably an application of aura as well, Godou realised.

"Yah!"

Knite threw a simple straight punch at the barrier.

SMASH!

A cracked indent formed on the barrier where the punch landed. Fortunately, the barrier withstood the blow and like before, the cracks repaired themselves.

"Oh it can withstand that as well!"

Knite looked at them happily without a trace of malice, his aura dissipating into nothingness again.

"Yep, this is the sort of stuff I like! Strong fighters and challenges everywhere!"

Godou had the impression that had not Knite been trying to corpse camp him and also long as he overlooked Knite's battle-manic tendencies, they might have gotten along well. As such, he made another attempt to get Knite to leave without causing any more trouble.

"Since you can't break the barrier why don't you all it quits? If all you promised to do was try and kill me you can go back and say that you tried and failed right?"

"It's a bit late to be saying that now and how could I possibly leave when such an intriguing challenge is before me! Besides, it looks like this barrier is going to collapse on itself in about a minute."

Inori visibly paled from these words. Crap! He realised that as well! Now that Gegorus had been beaten, the power sustaining the barriers would run out soon. Rejecting Godou's request for a peaceful resolution again, Knite pointed out a fatal flaw in the barrier. However,

"But waiting it out for my opponents to tire themselves out is simply not my style! You are to bear witness to this! I will destroy this obstacle before me with my own strength!"

Unwilling to resort to such a method Knite made such a declaration. Truly a simple and straightforward soul.

Knite held his scythe back and made the same stance he had when he performed his mana charged attack. Similarly, Godou felt Knite charge his scythe with mana from his body.

However, this time Knite also coated it with his aura. A dazzling layer of light covered his scythe. Utilising both mana and aura in his attack, Knite struck at the barrier with a horizontal slash!

SHATTER!

Knite's horizontal slash literally ripped the barrier in half.

Broken barrier shards sprayed in all directions, dissipating into tiny particles as they collided with other objects.

Without a doubt, Inori's Holy Barrier became completely and utterly destroyed.

In the next few moments several things happened at once.

Godou flinched as the barrier shards hurtled towards him. The shards dissipated without harming him so that was just a purely reflexive action.

At the same time, Inori, having finished charging her spell, threw the spell tag she was holding at Knite yelling:

"Great Imprisonment Seal!"

As the spell tag headed towards Knite with a projectile path that a piece of unfolded paper should not have, Knite countered it by traced a circular symbol in the air with a finger burning in white flame yelling:

"Reflect!"

Knite's technique caused Inori's spell tag to rebound off the drawn symbol like light from a mirror, sending the spell back at Godou and Inori.

At the same time, a Great Knight of Kallamore who had been alerted of the commotion arrived to the scene, 50 metres behind Godou and Inori. Sensing powerful aura which Knite held, the knight used a movement type skill and closed the distance between them in an instant.

Then Inori's spell tag exploded into a magic circle which created a dome shaped self-sustaining Holy Barrier around Godou and Inori.

The Great Knight of Kallamore also got trapped in the barrier with them. Unable to stop the momentum of his movement type skill, the Great Knight ran headfirst into the barrier. As a result of this collision, the Great Knight's helmet shattered to pieces and a small crack appeared on the barrier which repaired itself instantly.

The Great Knight then started to clutch his head and roll on the ground groaning "Ow ow ow ow" in an almost comical fashion.

A horrific pressure pressed itself on Godou from the inside of the seal, forcing him to the ground.

**Whilst within the sealed area, gravity has been amplified by 10 times. **

**Due to the fact that this effect does not directly target the body, this effect is not reduced by Magic or Elemental Resistances. **

**Your Health, Stamina and Mana are being constantly drained to sustain this spell.**

And finally, at the same time while this was all happening, Knite was struck from the side with a powerful attack while all his attention was diverted to Godou, Inori and the Great Knight of Kallamore.

"IMPACT SMASHER!"

With body and sword blazing with a harsh orange light, a knight half covered in glowing seal-like patterns, Hel, smashed her sword at Knite from the side with a heavy horizontal stroke.

A direct hit.

Without the protection of his aura, even Knite was affected by such an attack.

Knite even staggered back for a few moments after taking that hit. Hel looked like she wanted to follow up on the attack but suddenly fell down to one knee. Evidently, resisting the effects of Knite's light seal was taking its toll.

Recovering from the attack, Knite leapt away from the barrier and made some distance between himself and Hel remarking:

"With a high curse resistance and enough willower it is possible to resist my Light Elemental Seal. However I never expected to meet a human who could resist it here. Hahahaha This sure is an interesting place!"

Hel stared at Knite blankly and tried to attack again.

Knite cut her again.

Hel collapsed. But then panting.

She struggled back to her feet.

"Hel! Get away from there!"

"Hel!"

"Retreat! There's nothing you can do!"

From, inside the barrier, Godou, Inori and the Great Knight yelled at Hel to escape but it didn't seem like she heard them. Instead, she continued trying to fight back.

Desperate, they tried to force themselves upright. With much effort Godou was able to force himself on all fours. The Great Knight even managed to stand. Ten times gravity as well as the fatigue from casting her spell seemed too much for Inori on the other hand. She just lay there limply staring out weakly.

"Are you sure about this? Being hit by this sealing technique too many times may cause lasting effects you know?"

Even Knite was showing concern for Hel. Nevertheless, if his opponent wanted to fight, it went against his principle to run away.

As Knite approached Hel, the surface of the barriers around them suddenly became opaque, preventing them from seeing what was happening outside.

"Hel! No! No… I'm sorry... Even after I made such a big declaration, in the end I didn't manage to achieve anything. I have no control over how long this seal lasts for."

Noticing the tears welling up in Inori's eyes Godou did his best to reassure her. If she continued on like that there was no doubt that she would drown in a sea of self-hate and pity.

"Don't worry about it. You were able to tire down Knite with your contracted spirit when no one else could. Besides, Knite probably won't do anything too permanent to Hel."

Although he said that Godou still had his doubts. After all, Knite did make a mistake earlier and accidently killed a bunch of players. Godou could feel his anger build up inside of him. Who dares make this child… girl cry?

Seeing this, the Great Knight tried to help as well.

"That's right young one. If something goes wrong someone else's fault!"

"No… I think there's something wrong with that train of thought. Wait… You're-"

Wiping the tears away from her eyes, Irori suddenly blinked as she took a good look at the Great Knight. Ignoring this, the Great Knight continued.

"Rather, I would blame nutjob who made this sort of spell. Since you were using a spell tag as an assistance device this spell was designed by someone else wasn't it? Come to think of it, I know you. You're Lexus's student aren't you? This seems like the sort of spell he would make."

"Huh? You know Lexus?"

"Godou! This guy is Badas Sky, Hel's -"

Godou expressed his surprise when he heard a familiar name. Moreover, Inori was Lexus's student? Then again, a devilish seal that surrounded target with a nearly unbreakable barriers, amplified gravity greatly and continuously drained the target was definitely something Lexus would think up of. Godou shuddered as he remembered the traumatic experimental basic training Lexus had made him undergo.

Come to think of it, this Great Knight, Badas Sky seemed awfully familiar to him. Badas wore light armour, was armed with twin sabers . He appeared quite young considering his position, appearing about 30 years old. Godou noticed that Badas's armour showed a close resemblance to Hel's.

Inori tried to tell him something but was interrupted by the Great Knight who, straining under the effects of enhanced gravity declared:

"There's a time and place for this later. But yes, I am Badas Sky, the commander of the Tellap defence. I am so Hel's master. Humph! Some master I am, just watching my (former) apprentice get toyed around so much right in front of me."

Without giving them any more time to ponder on what he had just said, the Badas walked effortlessly in front of the barrier and slashed at it with one of his swords. There was a momentary flash of coloured light. Evidently, Badas had attempted to use a skill of some sort against the barrier. In the moment he did this Godou noticed the drain on his Health, Mana and Stamina jump significantly as the barrier drained their strength to withstand the blow.

"It doesn't seem like I'll be able to break the barrier safely no matter what I do. Hmm… what if I do this!"

Having determined that breaking the barrier was not the solution, Badas instead turned his attention to the ground, attempting to take advantage of the increased gravity to smash a hole in the ground.

However, this action too resulted in a dead end. Meanwhile Godou was staring blankly at Badas's calm and collected decisions. Was this guy really the same guy who made that weird speech just before the siege?

Slumped, Badas sat down crossed legged. Although his actions appeared calm, Godou could see the agitation and worry in his eyes.

Although Badas had already proven that it was impossible to escape the seal through obvious means, Godou wasn't one to blindly trust another's words without trying things for himself.

However, as it was he barely had the ability to stay upright let alone crawl so…

"Divine Wind Decree."

**Divine Wind Decree has activated.**

**+ 38% to all stats**

**The following skills are available:**

**Teleport**  
**Body of Wind**  
**Storm Summoning Ritual**

**Due to activating this skill with the intention of fighting a worthy opponent, your race has evolved to Heretic God/Breaker of the Divine Decree. The following racial traits have been gained:**

**+ Divine abilities will no longer go on deactivate due to poor condition additionally, the cost of many abilities has been reduced.**  
**+ Rarely, when hit by an otherwise fatal attack, you will survive with less than 1% of your total Health.**  
**+ When you die, your character will be permanently deleted.**

**Intention to fight a worthy opponent has been detected. Conditions for a crisis have been recognised. Heretic Decree: Unknown has started an analysis of your desires.**

**Due to excess of power, some aura is being released.**

A bunch of messages also popped up when he activated the skill but he ignored them as a fierce purple aura flared up lashing out uncontrollably from his body. Seeing this, Badas reacted quickly, countering Godou's rampaging aura with his own orange aura, protecting himself and Inori's limp form.

Why was this happening now? Godou wondered. This hadn't happened the last time he activated this skill. Or was it because he had increased his Divinity from last time that was he finally able to notice it? Now that he thought about it, he did feel the wind stir around him last time he activated the skill.

Either way, this had to stop! Godou desperately tried to contain his aura. However, since he didn't know how, it seemed his efforts were in vain. He felt a burning sensation around his neck and his aura condensed back into his body and stopped rampaging.

Apologising to Badas and Inori, Godou crawled laboriously towards the barrier.

"If I hit this with Body of Wind would it be able to do anything?"

Murmuring to himself, Godou recalled the effects of the Body of Wind skill. Increasing his speed and explosive power tremendously, last time he used it was when he was on top of Mt Revils. However, he had only been able to use it for a few seconds and it had been unbelievably hard to control. If it's power had increased as well due to his increased Divinity then Godou could only fear for the safety of the people sealed with him.

"Or I could try and use teleport to get out but will I also be able to carry the others with me?"

[There's an easier solution you know.]

Another familiar telepathic voice resonated inside his head. This time it was the voice of the friend he hadn't heard from in a while.

"Ferrex?"

[Let's ignore the greetings and catching up for now since something troublesome seemed to have happened again and focus on getting out.]

In response to Godou's query, Ferrex's reply as brisk and to the point.

[Try using your mana weapons. It should work… at least that's the inspiration I'm getting.]

With no reason not to try out Ferrex's suggestion first, Godou held out his hand and created a mana sword.

"Create."

**You have created a Mana Weapon**

**Mana Weapon has absorbed the Divine Aura around you**

**Mana Weapon has been converted into a Divine Mana Weapon.**

**Divine Mana Weapons have the ability to absorb spells. You cannot be damaged by your own Divine Mana Weapons. While in the presence of a Divine Aura, they no longer require mana to maintain a physical state.**

As soon as he read the information window for his mana weapons Godou realised what Ferrex was getting at. "Divine Mana Weapons have the ability to absorb spells" he felt like kicking himself for not remembering.

"I'm going to get us out here!"

Since Knite was still outside Godou felt the need to warn the others. Badas nodded in acknowledgement and readied himself. Meanwhile, Inori seemed to have lost consciousness as a combination of being crushed by gravity and from spell fatigue.

Either way being sealed like this isn't good for her. Godou poked the barrier with his mana sword.

**Divine Mana Weapon has absorbed Great Imprisonment Seal. The following properties have been gained.**

**+ indestructability**  
**+ gravity will be enhanced 10 times for everything this mana weapon touches except for the creator.**

**This mana weapon will break down in 5 minutes.**

The barrier and horrific pressure vanished. Godou quickly got to his feet and took in the scene before him.

Two people confronting each other. Hel and Knite.

Whilst Knite looked the same as he always ways, Hel was noticeably more fatigued and beaten. In fact, it was probably surprising that she was still conscious after what she went through.

However, there was a change about her that immediately got Godou's attention.

Hel's battle aura, which normally appeared like orange flame around her, had exploded and changed colour.

An eruption of silver lights and streaks of red. A blaze akin to an inferno.

"You… Did you just manage to evolve to…"

Even Knite seemed taken aback from this change.

When a human, or rather when a living organism in general, is pushed into a corner and relentlessly pressured, either one of two things can happen. The first outcome is simply that they give into the pressure and break. The second is that they adapt to the pressure and change. Adapt to it and evolve.

Faced with the weight of the responsibility of protecting her town, the sense of helplessness in being repetitively shown the inadequacy of her strength, the fatigue from fighting, mental trauma from resisting the effects of a powerful light elemental seal, there was no doubt that Hel was someone who was pushed into a corner.

She was truly on the crossroads. How she handled the situation would make or break her pride, honour and career. And the fact that she was aware of this only added more pressure onto her.

All these bottled factors tore at her from within. Cannot withstand any longer. About to burst!

I am a warrior of the land…

That had been her pledge at her initiation ceremony and she had tried to uphold it as best as she could but could a human like her really stand up to an Elemental Lord?

The shield of the people and sword of the king…

But what good was a shield couldn't block what need to be blocked? What good was a sword that couldn't cut what needed to be cut?

In face of death, in face of life I stand strong and unyielding as a Knight of Kallamore…

It was laughable really. There was no doubt that she was in that sort of situation right now but all yet it took everything she had to just stay standing.

Glory for the Kingdom!

Kallamore. The kingdom of knights. Did she really deserve to call herself a protector of such a kingdom?

Battered and beaten, Hel glared up at Knite. Eyes burning red with great force.

With panting, ragged breaths, Hel let her built-up stress explode into the form of aura.

She just let it go. She didn't care anymore. She didn't care about the pressure. She didn't care about protecting the town from unnecessary damage. She stopped trying to contain her emotions.

For aura which was closely linked to emotions, this was the final key that she needed.

No matter how you looked at it, she was far from reaching her ideal.

Having been shown repetitively how inadequate her current self was Hel had no choice anymore.

She discarded her current broken and beaten self. And in exchanged grasped at her potential and demanded herself to be better!

Ding!

**Your race has evolved to Human (Ascended).**

**You have learnt a new technique: Blood Burn Aura.**

**Blood Burn Aura: First Stage has been released.**  
**X3 Damage Output**  
**X3 Movement Speed**  
**+ 50% Damage Reduction**  
**+ Time appears to slow down by a factor of 4**  
**+ All attacks have been enhanced with aura.**  
**+ You are able overcome your limits**  
**2500 Health is being consumed per second**

Her fiery orange aura sudden changed silver. Occasional streaks of red could be seen.

"You… Did you just manage to evolve to…"

Knite seemed taken aback from this change.

This was a power which she couldn't obtain if she stayed concerned about everything. Without regard for her life she tapped into her lifeforce, her Health, and used it to directly power up her aura to her maximum limit.

This was a double edged sword which converted life-force into raw power and perception. A technique based on what her master had taught her.

A crater like depression ripped up the ground at her feet as she poured everything she had into her aura. The number of red streaks increased.

**Blood Burn Aura: Second Stage has been released.**

**X4 Damage Output**  
**X4 Movement Speed**  
**+ 50% Damage Reduction**  
**+ Time appears to slow down by a factor of 4**  
**+ All attacks have been enhanced with aura.**  
**+ you are able to overcome your limits**

**5000 Health is being consumed per second**


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 4  
Fresh from the word processor so there will probably be some errors.

Hel's aura exploded in size again and with a yell she rushed at Knite. Knite swung his scythe in a horizontal slash at her again but this time, Hel appeared to be able to dodge the attack with more ease than before.

In fact, she actually managed to jump over the attack in a position that made it difficult for Knite's scythe to reach her immediately after the swing. It wasn't that Hel had gotten exponentially faster physically, rather, it was her ability to react to things that had improved.

Godou noticed a rush of movement as Badas also charged past him as soon as he had taken down the barrier to join the fray.

Hel's swung her sword at Knite, mightily but Knite blocked the attack with aura. Badas approached avoiding Knite's attacks but Knite still managed to keep too far away to be able to deliver a heavy attack.

From the looks of it, it seemed that Knite was no longer using the seal attack and using actual damaging attacks now. Though against his human opponents, Knite refrained from powering up by completely releasing his aura like he did against the holy spirit Gegorus. Looking down on his opponents to the extremes. Or was he holding back power to have more fun?

Either way, that seemed to be a flaw that could be taken advantage of.

However, the three way fight between Hel, Knite and Badas had turned to such a high level martial arts battle that someone like Godou who had no prior experience in learning marital arts couldn't just jump into to help. Both of the Knights had also covered themselves in aura to enhance their abilities.

If he activated his Body of Wind skill, then he probably would be able to help in some way without dying straight away but the problem was that skill was really too hard to control in such a chaotic situation.

"If only there was some way that I could control that skill better."

The body of Wind skill gave him extreme speed and extreme explosive power. Although Godou had experience using similar powers, the method of controlling it was too different for him to apply what he knew.

[You're talking about Body of Wind right? How would you define improving your control?]

Ferrex asked him the question. It was a sign of how well Ferrex now knew Godou's personality that he was able to deduce Godou's thoughts with just a few words. Answering him, Godou tried his best to describe the control method which would be easiest for him.

"Well the main issue would be the fact that the skill's speed is too fast for me to take in normally. Having some way to control the output of the skill would also help."

[So if your time perception was enhanced and you had and on/off switch you would be able to control the skill better?]

"Pretty much."

Watching the fight, it appeared that Hel had reach her limit. She had fallen to one knee and appeared to be coughing up blood. Badas was covering for her but it seemed like she would be in danger if she stayed in the midst of the fight any longer. Ferrex appeared to think for a while, then he simply said.

[To increase time perception you need to increase the agility stat… Or... It's possible. Activate your skill, I want to try something.]

"What?"

[Just do it!]

In response to Ferrex's urgings Godou activated his skill.

"Body of Wind!"

**Body of Wind has successfully activated. Your speed and explosive power has been greatly enhanced. A divine aura of wind is being emitted from you. Due to racial attributes, this skill no longer has a time limit.**

Dark wind stirred around Godou and encompassed his body turning him in a storm in the shape of a human. Additionally dark purple aura flared up again and tore at his surroundings. Then, Godou felt a burning sensation around neck as Ferrex's pendant suddenly heated up again.

[This may hurt a bit. I only discovered that I could do this a moment ago as a result of being considered an item.]

As Ferrex uttered those words, Godou's aura condensed itself and the wind surrounding his body condensed itself into a mass of power. The disturbance around his body subsided and then Godou felt the mass of power rise and engulf itself at the back of his head.

"Ah!"

Godou couldn't help but let out a cry as he was hit by a massive headache. It was as if his nerves had been set on fire.

**Through forceful manipulation of the Divine Aura of Wind, the Body of Wind skill has been converted to have the following attributes:**

**+ Explosively increase your speed and power. Time appears to slow down by a factor of 8.**  
**+ This effect can be toggled on and off. While active you will continuously lose health.**  
**Due to the favouring control over power, the destructive power of this skill has been slightly reduced.**

**Due to forcing a Divine Power to gain and alter attributes it did not originally have, you have taken 1932 Damage.**

Suddenly, a strange phenomenon happened in Godou's sights. The world slowed down while his body sped up. Although he hated to admit it, this was a familiar feeling for him.

"I don't know what you did Ferrex but thanks."

[I simply copied an ability that the Knights in front of you were using. Though it seems that you have less drawbacks because of your class and race. It's a rush job but that's all I can do from here. Be careful.]

Ferrex's voice sounded strange in this decelerated world. As if he were shouting at Godou from a great distance. So even that effect happens here huh…

Thanking Ferrex from all his heart, Godou ran into the fight. No, it would be more accurate to describe his actions as gliding rather than running. Although this skill was similar to his real world [Raptor] ability, there were distinct differences.

As he moved forward, a gust of wind was generated by his movements, propelling him forward at great speed. The air moved around him so he didn't experience the effects of air resistance.

As he travelled his feet didn't touch the surface of the ground, but rather, he was propelled by a slippery layer of air just on top of the ground. Basically, the ground became something akin to an air hocky table which in allowed him to "skate" across the ground at great speed. It was only with his enhanced time perception that he noticed these things.

Godou ran into the fight, but he didn't try attacking Knite yet. Instead, he prioritised on getting Hel out of danger. Due to his high speed and unfamiliarity with this skill, making precise movements was difficult, however, all Godou need to do was run into Hel and drag her out of the range of the fight. The only thing he had to worry about was stopping his mana sword from coming into contact with Hel.

Thankfully, he was able to perform this without a hitch and brought Hel next to Inori, who was still unconscious. Although he was worried about the side effects his skill might have made in the brief time he made contact with Hel, he would have to consider that after Knite was taken care of.

Turning his attention back to the fight, Godou saw Badas and Knite exchanging a fury of blows. Considering the fact that he was seeing this in slow motion, the actual speed of these attacks must have been terrifyingly fast.

"Ferrex! How would my speed compare with the other fighters you've seen?"

Godou had made a comparison in his mind but he wanted to know what Ferrex thought.

[As you are now, I think you're about as fast as Hel using stacked movement increasing skills. Maybe a bit slower.]

Hmmm… So Ferrex thinks the same way as me huh. This speed is a far cry from the god speed I'm used to. Earlier, Knite had been able to hit Hel while she was using that kind of speed. This meant that it would be best for Godou to stay away from too much close combat. But first, let's test it out.

Godou ran at Knite holding the mana sword up right like a baseball bat.

"Hahaha so you were hiding such speed."

As expected, even while fighting an aura released Badas, Knite was still able to make an attempt to hit Godou.

His attack probably would have hit as well if Godou hadn't made a jump at the last second. Godou sailed over the two fighters. Knite looked like him might have tried jumped after Godou but a fierce attack from Badas stopped him.

Yep. That sealed it. Knite was able to keep track of his speed and hit him. Conversely, Godou had the feeling that he was able to condense the air under his feet and with his palms to an astonishing degree. It felt almost as if he would be able to achieve something akin to flying or walking on air if he tried hard enough.

Unknowingly, a savage grin split across Godou's face as he made such speculations.

Godou glanced at the corner of his vision, checking his health, mana and divine tolerance levels. It seemed that he had consumed quite a bit of all of those resources during the time he used this skill. Considering the fact that this was with his current time perception, the drain from this skill really was something.

Anyway, although, Knite was able to counter Godou's speed perfectly, Godou still had one strategy that he could use against such an opponent.

He made eye contact with Badas and indicated that he was about to try something with his eyes. Surprisingly, despite the short time they had known each other, Badas seemed to understand his message, or at least understand something was going to happen.

Knite watched this exchange happily.

Godou charged at Knite again, holding out the mana sword in front of him as if to stab Knite with it. This time he would attack for real. Like last time, Knite managed to get fend off Badas and made a swing at Godou with this scythe. However,

**You have deactivated Body of Wind.**

Just before Godou entered the reach of Knite's scythe, he turned off the effects of Body of Wind. His body decelerated and the world started to flow back at normal speed. A rush of sound seemed to hit Godou.

He saw Knite's surprise. Knite's attack swung past in front of him and in that instant-

**You have activated Body of Wind.**

**+ Explosively increase your speed and power. Time appears to slow down by a factor of 8.**  
**+ This effect can be toggled on and off. While active you will continuously lose health.**  
**Due to the favouring control over power, the destructive power of this skill has been slightly reduced.**

Godou accelerated his body once again and stabbed Knite.

**Due to high speed, damage has been amplified by 259%.**

White aura appeared in front of Knite's body blocking the attack but that was fine. Godou didn't expect a mana weapon created with his pitiful skill mastery to be able to hurt Knite anyway.

What he aimed to do instead was create an opening for Badas to attack!

As Knite stiffed in shock from suddenly experiencing X10 gravity unexpectedly. Godou leapt away, leaving the mana weapon imbedded in Knite's aura.

"4th Stage Release! Dragon Twister!"

Without missing a beat, Badas took advantage of the small opening Godou created to attack. Making a spinning motion with his whole body, Badas slashed at Knite using a dual sword technique which sent Knite spinning upwards at least 10 metres in the air.

Badas's orange aura suddenly changed colour as he performed this attack. This is- the same thing Hel did!

Silver and red lights erupted from Badas's aura, amplifying his power by at least 5 fold. Trails of silver and red aura of equal proportions covered and erupted from his dual swords, spiralling upwards with Knite's motion like twin dragons.

"Guargh!"

The attack seemed to contain a level of power which Knite didn't expect as his aura wasn't strong enough to block all of the damage.

However, Badas wasn't finished with just that, despite the fact that Knite was clearly out of his swords' range, he nevertheless brought them together and swung time using for another technique.

"6th Stage Release! Dragonic Sword Dance!"

The amount of red aura released increased again and Badas powered up even more than before. Releasing an aura that was more red than silver, Badas launched his attack again.

88 Dragon Ki streams of red and silver aura intermixed with mana blasted from Badas's swords, hurtling towards Knite in the form of 88 eastern dragons. A terrifying attack that had a horrific pressure around it.

However, at the same time Badas launched this attack, Godou saw Knite drawing a circular symbol in the air with his finger burning in white light. The defensive spell that reflected Inori's seal!

Oh no you don't! While he was still in mid-air due to his earlier jump, Godou desperately created a mana weapon and threw it at the symbol Knite had traced out.

Please hit!

While Godou normally had confidence in the strength and accuracy of his throws, it was an entirely different matter when he had an unfamiliar skill activated like right now.

Luckily his aim as true. Godou's mana weapon passed from the symbol and absorbed it, passing out of the way just before Badas's attack arrived.

"Tch."

Seeing his spell fail, Knite quickly released his aura instead. Covering his entire body with condensed white light. The same as when he faced off against Gegorus. It seems that Knite had determined that this wasn't an attack he could look down on. However…

"What?!"

As the Dragon Kis collided with Knite, they ate through his aura, growing larger in size as they did so. Thus, Knite was forced to take the full force of Badas's attack and was sent blasting over the town walls with a projectile path like a thrown ball.

Seeing this happen, Godou deactivated Body of Wind and ran up to Badas who was now panting heavily. It seemed that that attack just now had taken a lot out of him.

"I hope you still have some fight in you because that attack isn't enough to finish him off."

As he saw Godou approach, Badas said those words. Grimly, Godou nodded. He thought as much. Just as they were about leave in pursuit of Knite a voice called out.

"Mas…ter… Please… let me… come with you."

Godou turned to see that Hel had approached them, leaning heavily on her sword, her silver aura still active. Panting heavily and coughing out blood. Seeing her in such a condition distressed Godou somewhat, however,

"No, moving in your condition is akin to suicide. Rest Hel. And take care of your friend on the ground. That's an order!"

"But… I can still..."

Seeing Hel's objections, Badas sighed.

"Why did I have to rub my stubbornness into you as well… Well, we don't have much time so…"

Hel relaxed as her master seemed like he was going to give in but in was in that moment that Badas simply cut Hel with his sword.

Godou cried out in shock, but then he noticed that Hel was unhurt by the attack. Rather, the only thing damaged by Badas's attack was Hel's silver aura which had promptly vanished.

"Aura… cancelling…"

Muttering those words, Hel fell down. It was ironic but the only thing keeping her standing had been her blood burn aura which in turn had been consuming her lifeforce.

"Sorry Hel, but please stay stand down. You have so much potential in you that it would be a waste for it to die now… If it's too late to revive… if something happens to me… ask the one who made my swords about tips on Blood Burn Aura. After all, he was the one who created this technique."

Saying words which were almost akin to a final farewell, Badas turned to Godou who was waiting and simply said:

"Let's go."

Although there were many things Godou wanted to object about to Badas, he didn't voice them. Badas made a great leap and started traveling over to the place where Knite had landed. Apparently, the red-silver aura around him had also significantly increased his agility as well.

With no other way of catching up to him, Godou activated his Body of Wind skill again. His mana and Divine Tolerance would probably reach their limits soon.

They raced through the town and jumped over the walls arriving to the place where Knite had crashed landed into.

Coincidentally it had been an area full of coma sealed monsters from the monster army, through, many of them had been killed by splash damage from where Badas's Dragonic Sword Dance had landed. Godou then deactivated Body of Wind immediately to conserve his strength. Though from the looks of it he would only be able to maintain the skill for a few more seconds at most.

As they arrived, Godou heard Knite muttering to himself.

"Damn, after I went through all the sealing all those monsters, they ended up as collateral damage either way."

Sighing, Knite looked at them and asked politely, finally looking at them like opponents who stood on equal grounds:

"Please tell me your names."

"I am Badas Sky, A Great Knight of Kallamore!"

"I am Godou."

"Okay, I will remember that."

Saying that Knite turned to address Badas.

"You, the dragonslayer, have an interesting technique. I never expected to have my own aura turn on me and attack me. Because of that, I can no longer afford to look down on you!"

"Well that's what happens when you look down on your opponents like that."

"Hahaha that may be so, but that's what makes fighting so enjoyable!"

Knite released his aura and let it completely cover him like armour. Godou noticed that the amount and intensity of Knite's aura had decreased dramatically. Speaking of which, Knite's glow had also weakened quite a bit compared to when he first appeared. Sparks were emitted from various wounds on his body caused by the various strong opponents Knite had to fight in the town.

"Humph!"

Badas also condensed his red-silver aura around him like armour and charged at Knite to begin a fierce exchange of blows.

Godou watched this from afar racking his brain to try and think of some way that he could help. As the fight dragged on, it became increasingly clear that weakened as he was, Knite still had the upper hand. Now that Knite as wary of Badas's techniques, a massive opening like the one before wasn't going to arise any time soon.

"7th Stage Release!"

On the other hand, Badas was starting to wear out quickly as the fight dragged on as well. It didn't help that the technique he was using to keep up to Knite was practically killing him at the same time. Even after advancing the progression of his red aura to a stage where his aura appeared red with small silver streaks, Badas was still unable to completely gain the upper hand.

Godou could only watch all this from afar, helpless to intervene. Then, with a resolute expression which said that he had made up his mind, Badas jumped back from the fight, coughing out blood and proclaimed:

"Cough.. There is no doubt about you are the strongest opponent that I have faced so far. I have already left behind what I could so I have no regrets. Now is the time to see how much my remaining lifeforce is worth!"

"Well said."

In response to Badas's short speech which almost seemed like a dying man's last words, Knite only listened respectfully. Before Godou could try and persuade him otherwise, Badas released the final stage of Blood Burn Aura.

"Blood Burn Aura: 8th Stage, Final Release!"

Badas's aura turned completely red, no crimson and raged around him like a stream. The amount of presence emitted from him multiplied drastically surpassing Knite's current state significantly.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

Badas charged at Knite, his crimson aura ripping up the ground as he ran. In response to his opponent's fierce fighting spirit, Knite charged as well.

"Crimson Stream: Twin Night Dragons!"

With a yell, Badas's mana and aura solidified themselves in the form of two eastern dragons. With the dragon's heads forming around his blades and the rest of their long bodies trailing out behind him.

Clang!

The sound echoed across the battlefield as sword and scythe clashed. A shockwave seemed to rippled from the force of the collision. Then…

NEIGHH!

SNAP!

Knite's scythe and one of Badas's swords simultaneously broke from the clash.

Knite reacted with surprise while Badas continued through unfazed as if he expected the result.

Badas let loose a mighty slash at Knite with his other sword.

Additionally, the aura-mana dragon created around Badas's broken sword continued travelling regardless of its broken vessel and smashed into Knite as well.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A huge explosion erupted from the collision of these attacks. Godou used whatever time he had with Body of Wind to escape the most of this explosion taking only minor damage.

The smoke cleared. Godou approached to see Badas standing. And Knite lying on the ground.

Was this the end?

However, sparks flying from various wounds, Knite struggled back to his feet.

Even after taking such powerful consecutive hits, Knite was still able to stand!

Thus, the three of them stood at a distance in a standoff again.

Badas was panting heavily and coughing up even more blood from this exchange. It didn't seem like he had much time left. Things were looking bad.

Then,

Knite can you hear me?

A telepathic voice suddenly resounded through the air using the same method of talking as Knite had first used on Godou. An unfamiliar voice but it seemed like someone Knite knew.

"Ah! My lord, I am in the process of delivering Lou's judgement-"

My lord? So was this the Elemental Lord of Light speaking? Knite seemed to be about to explain the situation when the voice, the Elemental Lord, interrupted him with a brisk order.

Knite stop whatever you're doing and return to the Elemental Realm right now

"What?! My lord! I am in the process of carrying out Lou's retribution-"

At these words Knite reacted with shock, though even in that instant he didn't let his guard down.

Forget about that! The elemental realm of light is severely damaged. Our keystone also just got stolen. I trust you know the severity of the situation.

"My lord please reconsider. I only need a bit of extra time and you could call Castor-"

I am unable to contact Castor because there is a powerful barrier around his location which I can't break without diverting too much concentration away from the elemental realm. Enough is enough. Knite come back now! It's an order!

"I… Yes, my lord."

With great reluctance, Knite deactivated his aura and a portal appeared next to him. Before anyone could stop him, Knite had walked into the portal and vanished.

He didn't leave without saying goodbye however, as Godou heard his parting words clearly.

"I will be back in a few hours to finish this. Thanks for the fights and I hope you find a good healer quickly~"


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

Ding!

**A new quest is available.**

**Lou's Wrath, the Elemental Lord Candidate's Challenge**

**Despite being called back to the Elemental Realm of Light, Elemental Lord Candidate Knite still wishes to have a battle with you to fulfil the mission given to him as a result of Lou's rage over the destruction of his lost temple. Thus, after Knite finishes his business in the Elemental Realm, he will return to the town of Tellap to continue where he left off. Answer Knite's challenge and emerge victorious!**

**Difficulty:**  
**S (Legend)**

**Restrictions:**  
**Must have caught Knite's interest.**  
**Must have pissed off the God of Light Lou**

**Penalties:**  
**If you do not meet up with Knite he will attack the town of Tellap again in an attempt to find you**

**Rewards:**  
**Unknown**  
**You cannot refuse this quest. Quest has been accepted.**

**Crisis has ended. Heretic Decree: Unknown has finished taking analysis of your desires. Heretic Decree Unknown has been converted to [Divine Wildcard Decree].**

**Due to finally establishing your own personalised Decree, you have gained the approval of the Divine Overlord: The Origin. The Origin has bestowed up you some of its Divinity. The skill: [Gift of the Origin] has been obtained.**

**Your Health, Stamina and Mana has fallen below 10% of their maximum value. If you do not rest soon your life may be in danger.**

**Overpowering Will has deactivated.**

**Survival Instinct Has deactivated.**

As Knite disappeared through the portal, a series of messages bombarded Godou's vision, and a rush of fatigue also hit him. However he ignored all these things because he had more important things to worry about. Namely, finding a way to get himself and Badas out of their current situation.

After Knite had left, all of the monsters and defenders he had sealed had started to awaken from their comas. Godou current location was outside of the walls of the town and literally right in the middle of the enemy monster army.

Both himself and Badas were not capable of fighting their way back to the safety of the town walls in their current states as both of them had used techniques akin to double edged swords against Knite.

The only reason they hadn't died yet was probably because of the fact that all of the monsters around them had been killed as collateral damage in their battle against Knite and the fact the the monsters were still groggy from awakening.

It seemed like a hopeless situation but nevertheless he persevered. There had to be a way out of this situation. Godou went and helped Badas up and supported him upright. Badas had deactivated his aura when Knite had left but Godou saw that he seemed to have having some trouble breathing, let alone speaking.

Just before Badas had uses his technique he had said something about using the last of his lifeforce. That point worried Godou.

Would I be able to use teleport to carry us both back inside the city? Godou toyed with that idea but ultimately discarded it. He didn't have enough mana or Divine Tolerance left to perform that skill as he was now. Pus he still didn't know if he could carry someone else while teleporting either.

A dark shadow flew above them. Godou looked up startled and saw a giant white bird swooping towards them silently. The bird somewhat resembled an eagle and had a wing span of at least 5 metres.

A monster attacking already?

Godou readied himself, prepared to fight but quick words from Ferrex stopped him.

[Stop, I sense no killing intent from it. Rather, I don't sense anything from it at all. Nevertheless, It's not part of the monster army that's for sure.]

Godou hesitated and in that moment the bird reached them and Godou felt a light joint of pain as the bird grabbed both him and Badas and carried them back to the city.

From up close, Godou noticed that the bird seemed strangely artificial. His body was comprised of sharp lines which no living creature would have and its body seemed to have been made out of some sort of hard material. Blue light glowed out from where the bird's eyes should have been.

Using his new found ability to detect mana, Godou tried to see what he could learn about the bird. However, he found feel no mana from it at all.

[Is this a product of ancient magic? This bird is most definitely a golem but I don't see any traces of modern magic circles on it.]

Ferrex also made speculations, sharing Godou's doubts.

Conversely, Godou noticed that Badas had retrieved the broken pieces of his sword in some point in time and was clutching them tightly during the flight.

The bird flew over the city walls as if it had a set destination to land. To Godou's surprise, the bird's actual landing point as the place where he and Badas and left Hel and Inori behind. The bird set them down on the ground, though not to gently. Though considering the fact that it had been flying with the unbalanced weight of two extra people this fact couldn't be helped.

There was another person present there now who looked like they were treating Hel and Inori with rectangular strips of paper that didn't look like bandages.

Rather, they resembled the spell tag thrown by Inori earlier than bandages. However, instead of a magic circle, a strange symbol seemed to have been drawn on them. Godou could sense traces on mana on these spell tag like strips of papers.

[Healing Charms huh? Another type of ancient magic…]

After it had dropped them, the bird flapped its wings and amazingly starting to shrink dramatically until it was about the size of a nightingale. Then it landed on the shoulder of the person who had treated Hel and Inori. The bird then turned into a mass of red light and vanished.

Godou noted that that person was male and wore a white coat that was somewhat reminiscent of a scientist's lab coat. That person seemed to be 1 or 2 years older than he was.

The person, who Godou now recognised as one of the drinking buddies he had made before the siege, Satoshi, turned and looked at them with an appraising eye as if taking in their conditions. Then he threw several healing charms at them.

Ever since he had gotten his class change, Godou had been immune from the effects of all the healing spells that been thrown at him. Thus Godou was surprised that the Healing Charms actually had an effect on his body as they increased his rate of regeneration. However, the effectiveness of the Healing Charms could not be compared to actual healing spells. Rather, they only seemed to be slightly better than using bandages. Admittedly, the effects of the Heal Charms had also been greatly reduced as well due to his class attributes.

Sighing, Satoshi addressed Badas who lay collapsed on the ground, barely conscious and seemingly unaffected by the Healing Charms.

"The hell did you do to yourself man?"

"Oh… it's you… It was… a good fight… I… have no… regrets…"

Badas responded to that question as if he had something important to say. Godou wasn't sure how to react in this situation but Satoshi interrupted him before he could finish in a sarcastic tone which you never would have expected someone to say to a dying person.

"Yeah bullshit you have no regrets. Why would you ask me to find a healer who knows how to cast resurrection otherwise? By the way, I couldn't find one."

As he said this a small flask appeared in Satoshi's hand out of nowhere. It was full of red liquid which Godou recognised as a health potion.

"However, as the one who told you alerted you about the Elemental Lord Candidate popping up out of nowhere, I would be responsible for your death if you die here. (Not to mention I won't get any quest rewards…) So live on Knight, your kingdom (and myself in extension) have not finished exploiting your services! Potion Cast!"

Satoshi opened the flask and splashed the contents onto Badas. As he did so the red liquid suddenly glowed and transformed into red light and entered Badas's body. Badas' consciousness seemed to become hazy after that but his condition appeared to settle down somewhat. His breathing was no longer as strained and erratic. For now that is.

From the looks of it, Badas had already reached the stage where not even a High priest/Pope (Note: I'm just going to assume these are the same in this fanfic) level healer could help him. What Satoshi had done was merely buy him some more time.

However, looking at the situation, Satoshi had managed to save all of them from a critical situation, thus Godou gave him his gratitude and asked.

"Thanks for saving us. How are the others doing?"

By others he had meant Inori and Hel. From the looks of it Hel was barely conscious and pretty much unable to move by herself. Inori had woken up but also seem weak and groggy. Conversely, her hair and eyes had returned to their original dark colour.

"The Knight is suffering from the backlash of a powerful technique as well as physical and mental stamina depletion. Only time will help with that. The holy spirit contractor also suffers from stamina and mana depletion, she also seems to be in a state of not being able to use magic due to over stepping her boundaries. Again only time will see how this goes. While resource depletion is more serious for NPCs than players, they should recover. Either way, both of them of them will be unable to help in the siege any further."

So was basically a "they are exhausted but will recover" sort of thing. Satoshi looked at Godou with recognition in his eyes while responding to Godou's question with something that sounded like a doctor reporting a patient's diagnosis. For some reason Godou didn't doubt him. Perhaps it was the easy going yet reliable atmosphere around Satoshi?

Then Satoshi smiled.

"Of course all of this isn't for free. You guys own me a favour."

A terrifying devil's smile that set a chill up Godou's spine. Was easy going really the right description?

"I can't speak for the others but I will pay you back one day."

Nevertheless Godou ended up agreeing with Satoshi's point. Helping out friends in need. Wasn't that the natural thing to do? Though in this case it more like a "an eye for an eye" situation.

Anyway, after some further quick discussion, they decided to move the ones who were unable to battle (Hel, Inori and Badas) to a safer location, namely, inside the Church of Freya.

The church of Freya was chosen mainly because Godou had the authority to enter and leave it and because it was the most likely place to find a healer or information about the whereabouts of healers. It was also a place full of holy power. Apparently, being in places saturated with holy power sped up resource recovery somewhat so that kind of place who be ideal for stabilising Hel's and Inori's condition. More importantly, being in a place full of holy power allowed for a longer effective time range for the resurrection spell, so that kind of place was just what Badas needed.

Resurrection was a holy spell that did exactly what it sounded. It revived people from the dead, not as undead however, but as normal living beings. However, due to its abilities being so powerful, resurrection would only be effective during a certain time period after the person had died. It was also a high level spell that required a skilled and experienced healer to use.

Despite his apparent medical expertise, it seemed that casting such a holy spell was beyond Satoshi's capabilities.

They made their way on foot, mainly in case they ran into someone who would cast the resurrection spell on their way to the church. Satoshi had also set his bird flying in the air above the town again to keep a look out and alert them if any stray monsters had managed to get close by.

Satoshi could afford to do this since he never had any real orders because he was militia while Godou party had practically already been destroyed and Badas had relieved him from his duties.

On the way there, Godou could feel himself drawing many stares.

Satoshi supported Badas as they travelled while Godou was left with helping out Hel by supporting her with his shoulder. However, although Inori also to be able to walk, she was also still groggy from fatigue and somehow found walking easier leaning on him from the side opposite from Hel.

Thus, Godou walked through the streets in a situation that somewhat resembled "a lady on each arm" literally. Although there were many things Godou wanted to defend himself about his current situation such as Hel being a male who just happens to look androgynous (Yep he still hasn't noticed), he didn't seem to be able to find the energy to do so.

Godou noticed Satoshi staring at him curiously as well. Growing irritable he asked:

"What?"

However, it seemed like Satoshi was staring at him for a different reason.

"Well, this pretty much the first time I've seen a player with an A ranked race though I could have sworn that your race was only B ranked last time I saw you in Mark's pub."

"A ranked?"

Godou's reaction was one of confusion. Speaking of which, I think Holy Spirit Gregorus's also mentioned something about that before he was "killed".

"You don't know? The races in this world are given hidden ranks from A to F with F being the weakest and A being the strongest. F rank represents the weakest races, basically normal animals like rabbits and such. E refers to weak humanoid like monsters like goblins and kolbolts. D refers to humans, elves, dwarves and most other starting races and the scale increases so on. As you look higher up the ranks, the gap in power between in tier seems to increase. B rank refers to weak gods, higher spirits, divine beasts, phantom beasts etc. I think A rank refers to True gods like Lou, Freya, Thor and Ultimate Class beings like the Elemental Lords, Dragon Kings, Abyssal Lord etc. Pretty much the strongest monster you can meet on the continent normally are B ranked monsters. Almost all A ranked beings seem to reside in worlds of their own making which are not on the continent. Ancient texts refer to these worlds collectively as the Immortal Realms while the continent is referred to as the mortal realm."

Satoshi answered Godou with an astounding degree of detail considering the fact that he was a player as well. Evidently, he was the real deal when it comes to collecting information.

Ferrex, who had been silent up until now had also appeared surprised.

[To have so much detailed information. Come to think of it, he used at least 3 different types of Ancient Magic earlier. Who the hell is this guy?]

Since Satoshi couldn't hear, Godou asked in Ferrex's stead and got the following frivolous answer.

"Oh don't mind me. I'm just a stalker. No one suspicious. "

Their conversation stopped there because they had arrived at the church.

Part 2

Godou walked around the church looking around. It seems they had miscalculated. The church of Freya was practically deserted.

Thinking back, Godou did remember something about the church of Freya being short on members recently due to various factors. Killed by Seirph, called to the Plains of Despair, investigating Naidiriv etc. It seemed that all their current members of the church were actively helping out on the battlefield so there were no powerful healers left in the church.

On a side note, Badas's condition had gotten worse as they entered the church so Godou had left the others in a waiting room to go looking for a healer. Badas because he obviously shouldn't be moved any more than necessary, Hel and Inori because they needed to rest and Satoshi because he needed to monitor their conditions.

Thus Godou was left by himself again. Then again he wasn't completely alone since Ferrex was with him but Ferrex had gone quiet recently. He would still respond if Godou asked a question so Godou had the impression that he was thinking about something.

Godou entered room after room growing more restless as he continued. He came to a room that had a large magic circle drawn on the ground. In the centre of the circle was a large arch made of some strange material. If he remembered correctly, this should be the room with the teleport gate linked to other churches belonging to the church of Freya.

Godou considered using the teleport gate to ask for help in other churches but disregarded the idea since he didn't know how to operate the teleport gate himself.

The gate suddenly flared up and a disturbance appeared in the centre of the arch.

Was someone coming?

The disturbance formed into two figures. One wearing priest robes and the other wearing grey light armour. Godou focused his attention on the priest.

A man appearing around 30 years old. Conservative features. Plain undecorated robes. No staff to be seen anywhere.

It was someone Godou recognised. The last time he had met this person was on Mt Revils. Godou vaguely remembered him saying something about fixing the teleport gate in the church based in Naidiriv. It was Lexus!

[Ah! Lexus can cast Resurrection!]

After hearing that Godou immediately requested Lexus's help. Although normally he would have liked to politely greet Lexus first, this was a matter of urgency since Badas probably didn't have much time.

Surprisingly, Lexus offered his assistance without questioning any further. Godou led him to the room where the others where. He noticed that Lexus appeared more tired and haggard then he had ever seen him before. Parts of his robes also seemed to be damaged from battle.

Would he really be able to cast use a complicated spell in that condition? But then Ferrex had said it could be done and knowing Ferrex he would have taken into consider Lexus's condition as well right?

When they reached the room, Godou decided to wait outside. For some reason, the room had the atmosphere of a surgeon's operating room which made him reluctant to enter carelessly.

Conversely, the waiting room was the last door in the corridor.

Instead, he turned his attention to the figure who had accompanied Lexus in the Teleport Gate. That person had also followed them to the waiting room and like Godou had also decided to wait outside. Surprisingly, this was also someone that Godou knew.

A teenage girl wearing light armour and a grey scarf. Purple hair which you could only see in an anime or a game like this. The veteran player who had partied with Godou quite recently before the siege. The player who had been involuntarily nicknamed "Grey Phantom" by the player community. Reta.

Seeing Godou's stare, Reta raised her hand in upbeat greeting.

"Yo! I was wondering hold long you were going to ignore me. Just kidding~ It seemed like an urgent matter."

"It's nice to see you again as well."

Since the crisis had been taken out of his hands, Godou felt that he could afford to waste time for greetings now. Reta seemed curious about had happened so he answered her questions to the best of his ability.

"So who died? You want Lexus to use Resurrection don't you?"

"The commander."

"Seriously? No wonder you were desperate. What happened to Ferrex? Shouldn't someone like him also be able to cast resurrection as well?"

In response to that question Ferrex himself answered, allowing Reta to hear him.

[Its complicated but right now I'm just an item in Godou's possession.]

"Oh wow really? Come to think of it, I've heard about sentient items like ego swords and the like."

Reta's reaction was not as surprised as Godou expected to be. It seems that she had gotten used to these kind of things after playing Royal Road for so long. Moreover, she started panting heavily and seemed to be taking the conversation in a weird direction.

"Kyaa! Doesn't that mean that you two… pant… will be together... pant... for "everything"?. It's like you two become… pant.. "one". "

"Everything? Become one? For some reason I don't like the connotation your using for those words. Also, stop panting like a dog in the heat!"

Godou couldn't help but let that retort slip from his mouth. Before Reta could reply, the door of the waiting room opened behind him and Satoshi came out reporting.

"Resurrection was successfully though Badas still can't fight yet, Lexus is now looking at the other two and…"

He trailed off as he caught sight of Reta. Godou noticed Satoshi's eyes glance quickly at the only exit behind where Reta was currently standing. He scanned for nearby windows but found none. He closed the door and backed away slowly, his back against the wall.

Reta's expression also changed. She smiled. The smile of a shewolf that had cornered her prey.

There was a strained silence. Godou looked on in confusion. Was there some past history between these two? Both of them seemed to be veteran players so it would be plausible.

"Ha ha ha ha… It's a small world isn't it Grey Phantom?"

The one to break the silence was Satsohi.

On the other hand, Reta had moved to the centre of the corridor to seal off Satoshi's escape, her knuckles cracking menacingly.

"It depends how you see it. Now, tell me… What's a Haven spy like you doing in Kallamore?"

Godou recalled the situation between the Kingdoms of Haven and Kallamore. The two were enemies with each other and had a war a few decades ago. Officially, the war had ended with a ceasefire but that didn't mean that the fighting had stopped. The Kallamore-Haven war was still being waged unofficially with both kingdoms sending spies and saboteurs to try and weaken the other.

"Spy? What are you talking about? I'm just an adventuring alchemist now, nothing a Kallamore assassin should concern herself with."

Satsohi defended himself but even to Godou this didn't sound very convincing.

"Really? Why don't I believe you?"

As expected, Reta didn't buy it either.

"I didn't expect it to but still… Let me just get to the point. You can't kill me."

"Oh?"

"Simply, because I know your weakness."

With the haughty grin of a veteran who survived many battles, Satoshi pulled out his bluff.

"Really now? I don't know what happened to you but your level seems to have dropped since I last saw you. Besides, when have you ever beaten me one on one?"

In response to that, Reta made preparations for an attack with a retort of her own. Godou simply stood in the middle of all this unsure of which side to take.

"Ha ha ha If you want an exchange of blows then I'm afraid you attacking the wrong person. That sort of stuff is for the 3 powerhouses to handle… or rather there's only Ray Bard left now since the other two aren't active anymore… Scorn all you want but the weak have their own way of fighting!"

Reta leap at Satoshi aiming for a punch in the face. However, Satoshi manifested a scroll in his hand and opened it like a shield in front of his face.

Reta's punch continued as if it would rip through the scroll anyway. But then just before it connected with the scroll… she stopped.

Godou leaned to the side to see what the scroll contained but then sincerely wished he hadn't.

On the scroll was a realistic painting. Without a doubt it would be a work of art. So real that it looked almost like a photograph.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was what the painting was a picture of.

Describing something like that might permanently scar his mind. Let's just say that the scroll contained a painting of the genre called "Yaoi".

"…You cheapskate…why do you have…"

"Ha! Against a broken character like you, I have to resort to such measures!"

Satoshi slowly edged around Reta, keeping the painting between them like a shield. Reta followed his movements but didn't attack, her expression showed that she torn between two choices. It was kinda of cute in a strange way.

Moreover, should I be amazed that Satoshi was carrying something like that with him or about the fact that it actually kept Reta at bay?

Godou could only shake his head at the idiocy of the scene he had just witnessed.

It was in that moment that the door opened again and Lexus appeared saying that Badas wanted to speak with them… Only to catch full sight of the painting Satoshi was holding up as a shield.

There was another moment of silence then…

"Burn."

Holy flames of purification were released on the painting.

""Ah!""

Simultaneously, Satoshi and Reta cried out though for different reasons.

Thus, this ridiculous ordeal was settled.

After managing out what to do next as the middleman, Godou managed to get Satoshi and Reta to begrudgingly agree to meet Badas together.

Badas was still weak and unable to fight due to his recent resurrection but Godou was told that his life was no longer in danger. With much effort, Badas managed to speak to them and give Satoshi and Reta a quest to kill the enemy general. Although Reta had stopped trying to attack Satoshi due to Badas's words, Godou really wondered whether those two could really cooperate on such a quest.

It seems Badas had excluded Godou from this task since he knew that Godou still had to the issue with Knite to deal with.

Apparently Ferrex had brought Lexus up to speed about Knite's appearance and Lexus wanted to speak with Godou privately after taking care of Hel and Inori and after doing some preparation. Conversely, those two were moved to rest in a separate room.

Thus, Godou moved to the location where Lexus had told him to wait for him. It was also a familiar place to him.

After all, he had spent the equivalent of 3 weeks in there before.

A secret room under the Church of Freya.

The entrance to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Though, he knew it was necessary to consult Lexus about the how to deal with Knite he still uttered those words.

Part 3

During the period of time that he was waiting for Lexus, Godou had gone back and checked all the messages he had been ignoring since Knite's appearance.

He found the first few messages quite distressing. His race seem to have changed… well, evolved.

**Race: Heretic God/Breaker of the Divine Decree**

**As one who refused to sign the Divine Decree known as the Contract of Gods, you are an unbound force of disaster, free from the restraints which bind all other true gods in the mortal realm. All beings with sufficient training will be able to recognise the abnormality you represent in the mortal world and react accordingly.**

**Traits:**

**- Rarely, when hit by an otherwise fatal attack, you will survive with less than 1% of your total Health.**  
**- The strain caused on your Divine Tolerance due to using Divine Abilities is halved.**  
**- When you die, your character will be permanently deleted.**  
**- Other bonuses to be discovered.**

Although it was probably an ultra-rare race Godou was not one bit happy about this race change.

First of all, why did it have to be named Heretic God?

And secondly, if he died his character would be deleted, wasn't that basically the equivalent of a permanent death here as well?

Godou's patience was reaching its limited due to the events that had been happening to him in the past few hours and reading this was not helping.

He continued checking the messages and opened the relevant information about the strange quest ranking Knite's quest seemed to have.

**(Legend) ranked quests are quests were the fame gained from your actions related to the quest are not actually connected with your person. Instead, they are spread as something like a myth or and urban legend.**

He opened the information windows for the skill he just unlocked.

**Gift of the Origin [Max]**

**A gift of Divinity given to you who have gained the approval of the Divine Overlord: The Origin. Convert all your accumulated fame to gain the might of gods and reset the cooldowns on all skills and abilities.**

**You must set an incantation to use this skill. This skill requires approximately 180 natural days (in-game time) to recharge after use. The actual time required may vary due to many factors.**

**Duration: 24 hours**

**Divine Wildcard Decree [Comprehension: 0%]**

**A personalised Divine Decree which grants you powers beyond other mortals. Randomly gain access to Wildcard Forms which have been shaped by an analysis of your desires. Each Wildcard form can only be used once every 24 hours. The skill level of the abilities gained from the sub degrees are dependent on the intensity of your aura.**

**Restrictions:**  
**This skill can only be activated in the presence of an hostile Divinity.**

**Card 1**  
**[Details are hidden until use].**

**Card 2**  
**[Details are hidden until use].**

**Card 3**  
**[Details are hidden until use].**

**Card 4**  
**[Details are hidden until use].**

So another game breaking yet unreliable power... Would the world please stop fucking with him? At this rate Royal Road who turn out exactly like reality. (It's already too late!)

Calming himself from that sudden outburst of emotion, Godou waited. It was in that time that Ferrex spoke to him again.

[I have something important I want to discuss with you.]

"About what?"

[Well… about the beginning of everything. The origins of our classes and the origins of the world.]

Since he had nothing else to do, Godou thought he might as well listen.

[Call it Divine Inspiration if you will but during the time that I was unable to talk to you, Godou, I was… how would you put it? Stuck between the realms of life and death. Basically, I was halfway in the immortal realms while still having a connection to the mortal realm. Because of that, I was able to gain access to some information which I normally wouldn't be able to. Godou, this is a story of the origins of our classes.]

This convenient Divine Inspiration sounded a lot like spirit vision for some reason… Thinking back, Ferrex had demonstrated a similar ability before as well. Godou realised.

[In the beginning of time, there was only one realm and that that one realm contained all species. That realm was the continent Versailles. Although, it is called the mortal realm now, it would not be wrong to say this it is also the original and first realm to be created. All other realms are mere copies of it.]

As Ferrex spoke, the scenery around Godou vanished and changed, recreating itself to create images that matched his words. Was this some sort of game cut-scene?

[This included Gods as well. The Gods roamed the land and did whatever they wanted and started conflicts wherever and whenever they wanted. Needless to say, they were at war with each other. Everywhere they went they caused calamities and disasters of all sorts. Eventually, a group of gods teamed up and decided that if they were to continue onwards like this then Versailles would be destroyed.

Therefore, they decreed that all gods who reached a certain level of strength could only compete against each other in strength and prosperity through their followers. In other words, it was a proposal to seal their powers from the mortal realm and create their own realms like the Elemental Lords and Spirit King. The majority of god's agreed to follow this decree however, there were some who opposed of it and rebelled.]

Godou saw it. The two different fractions, arguing with each for countless days. Seeing that they would never meet each other's views, the two fractions just gave up trying to solve the dispute and went their separate ways.

[These rebellious gods continued to walk the land as the harbingers of disaster and chaos. Over time, they were no longer recognised as gods but as Devils. As they grew in power and support, they eventually gained the name Heretical God.]

Hmm? Why does this name sound so familiar? Godou wondered sarcastically.

[It was because of the disaster brought forth by these Heretic Gods that the other gods were forced to step in and intervene. However, since they could no longer directly interfere with the "mortal" world they had to bestow upon their followers a way to oppose the Heretic Gods. This led to the development and implementation of a system that allowed them to utilise loopholes in the system they created and channel their power through a proxy. The Divine Saint Variants system.]

So this is the lore about the Divine Saints and Divine Saint Knights huh. For some reason Godou no longer felt surprised by the complexity of Royal Road.

[Thus started a second major war between gods. This time between the Divine Saints, Divine Saint Knights and the Heretical Gods. Initially, there was no contest between the Heretic Gods and the Divine Saint Variants. Humans were inexperienced in the ways of using Divine Power and so it was child's play for the experienced Heretic Gods to kill them. Many religions were wiped out during this chaotic period.]

Images of conflict between mortals and gods appeared in Godou's sights. He saw churches destroyed, people massacred all from the wrath of a single god. A lone figure dressed in white stood in front of a city, shielding the people of from the god's wrath.

[But then the humans learnt. With each battle they survived they learnt how to fight. They learnt how to survive. They learnt how to win! Each generation of Divine Saint left behind a new way of using Divine Power. A new spell in the arsenal which was later named the Heaven's Calling. With each generation of Divine Saint Knight, the process of using Divine Aura was refined until it developed to a stage that it could rival gods. This technique became known as Divine Possession.

The number of white figures increased. Alone, these figures fought against the gods, gaining experience and growing stronger.

[Thus eventually, the Heretic Gods became all but wiped out. They may still exist but they haven't made themselves known to the rest of the world. But this was not the end of it. Within this chaotic era, there were certain individuals' whose talents began to shine.]

Four silhouettes appeared before him. There images distinctly different from the images that had appeared before them.

[A vampiric witch, feared by all as Queen of Ice and Gospel of darkness. The Witch.]

Godou caught sight of a pale woman with long blonde hair, surrounded by an army of demonic puppets in a wasteland of ice.

[A bored troublemaker, wielder of a power which no human should ever hold. The Trickster.]

He saw a youth, also blonde, lying on the ground staring at the clouds. Bored of the world and all its lacklustre challenges.

[A holy sword wielder, the sole survivor of a church ravished by the direct power of gods. The Sword Saint.]

He saw a blue haired swordswoman dual-wielding holy swords of tremendous power. With glaze sharp like a sword, she sought to oppose the Gods to the very end.

[And a mysterious adventurer, an entity capable of capturing and bringing even the strongest beings into submission. The Fighter.]

He saw a figure stand on top of a dark snowing mountain. Waiting in the cold, waiting in silence. All for the sake of finding a worthy opponent. Red eyes flashed mysteriously in the dark.

[Despite their different origins and abilities, these four had something in common… They met The Origin.]

Godou stiffened at the mention of a familiar name. Wasn't The Origin mentioned in one of his new skills?

[And responding to their wishes The Origin bestowed upon them the power to bring this the era of the War of Gods to its climax.

The Origin, the original, changed their bases and turned them into an alikeness of itself.

Thus, like The Origin, these four became Divine Overlords.]

The Origin was without a doubt, the most powerful entity in all of Royal Road.

The Origin was the original. The creator of all. The ruler of all.

It had many names.

To the Gods and legends, it was the Divine Overlord.

To the churches, it was called the Holy Seer.

And to the programmers who created Royal Road, it was known as the A.I. Goddess Versailles.

This was the truth that had not been spoken.

[Try as they might the Divine Saint Variants of many religions were unable to defeat beings who were not originally gods themselves. As if mocking the efforts of true Gods, these four refused to fall, for they were different from the gods who were strong because of their Divinity. Rather, it was because these four were strong that they were given Divinity. Thus these troublemakers roamed around the land, following their desires and occasionally causing a conflict of some sort].

[Over time, knowledge and records of these events became warped and lost. Even with my Divine Inspiration I was unable to find out what happened to the Overlords. They simply vanished over time.]

Ferrex gave him a few moments to let this information sink.

Then with perfect timing, Lexus arrived.

Part 4

Meanwhile, in the Elemental Realm of Light, Knite had returned to find an astounding amount of damage had been done to the realm.

Evidently, a fierce battle of colossal powers had been waged while had had been playing around… full filling his duties in the mortal realm. No wonder the Elemental Lord needed his help. Knite could feel the power sustaining the Elemental Realm fluctuate wildly. Come to think of it, the keystone was stolen as well wasn't it?

As part of the immortal realms, the Elemental Realm of Light had not originally been created at the beginning of time. Rather, it had been something created along the way as the first elementals grew stronger and for whatever reason needed to create a realm of their own.

To greatly simplify the process of creating an artificial realm, you could say that two things where needed. First the proper power and technique needed to be used to create the world. Secondly, a keystone needed to be created to "anchor" the artificial world.

Anchoring the worlds allowed their "location" to be references thus allowing the artificial world to be connected with other worlds rather than just "float" out isolated in "space". Thus, over time, the network of worlds eventual grew and became collectively referred to as the Immortal Realms.

The Mortal Realm would be seen as the overlapping area of each world. Sort of like the centre of a large Ven Daigram. The influences that the Immortal world keystones had on the Mortal Realm appeared in the form of leyline clusters and the like.

Since the worlds were all connected in some way, when one world was disrupted, some effects would show on the other worlds as well.

The Elemental Realm of Light was connected to the realms of many different Light Gods. If it to be attacked and damaged so badly, the attacker must really be fearless.

In the case of the Elemental Realm of Light, the power and technique to sustain the world had been produced by the Elemental Lord himself. However, as a result of creating a world so vast and large, the Elemental Lord was unable to gain access to the Mortal Realm.

When an elemental dies, their they return to the Elemental Realm and wait until their body stabilises enough to the point where they can re-enter the mortal world. However, if the elemental lord dies, then the elemental realm also collapses thus the elemental lord has no place to return to and so dies permanently.

Hmmm, if I recall correctly, the keystone of the Elemental Realm should have been that thing right?

Knite tried to recall what he could. It wasn't that difficult.

Keystones generally had to be objects of power. Although for a realm like the Elemental Realm of light that had so many connections to other realms, it should be fine without a keystone for a few years.

Although he seemed like an idiot who charged head on into things with physical techniques he did have the same base stats as Castor. This of course also included the Intelligence, Wisdom and Insight departments. It was just that he was too lazy to use think most of the time.

The keystone of the elemental realm should have been the legendary holy sword ExDurandal. It was basically a fusion of the legendary swords Excalibur and Durandal. If he recalled correctly, Durandal was supposed to have great destructive power whilst Excalibur had 7 different abilities including boosted speed, invisibility, destruction, shape changing, illusions etc.

Apparently the keystone had been stolen, or rather, retrieved back by its original owner, the Divine Overlord: The Sword Saint. Apparently, this had happened just after he had left the realm.

If only he had stayed, back little longer, he would have been able to fight the… help the Elemental Lord fight against the Sword Saint. Although Knite was regretful over that fact, he had been able to meet some interesting fighters in the mortal realm as well.

Right now, Knite was using his elemental powers to try and stabilise the Elemental Realm. It wasn't difficult work. In fact it was just plain boring. But it had to be done. While he was doing this, his rate of recovery had also fallen dramatically.

As a result of the fierce battles he had under gone in the mortal realm, Knite had lost a bit more than 50% of his total Health. His stamina had also dropped significantly due to the fact that he was hit by a technique that turned his aura against him. Additionally his partner, his horse/scythe had also died and with the Elemental Realm as it was it seemed like it wouldn't be able to return to the mortal realm for a while.

If only Castor were here, then he would be able to return to the mortal realm to continue his business. Not only was stabilising the elemental realm boring work, it was also the type of work where too many cooks would spoil the broth.

In other words, if Castor came back and relieved him of his duty, he would be free to do whatever wanted, this is, he would be free to continue challenging Godou and whoever else wanted to fight him.

Just as he thought that, Knite sensed a powerful light entity arriving on the Elemental Realm. It seemed Castor had returned.

Knite went over to the place were Castor had arrived and immediately noticed that something was wrong.

Instead, of materialising in his normal form, Castor had returned in an irregular unfocused form which started to reform itself.

Knite connected the dots. The Elemental Lord had said that there had been a powerful barrier around the place where Castor was. That meant that Castor had been fighting someone strong enough to stop the Elemental Lord from communicating with them.

Castor's current form was what happened to an Elemental when they died. So that meant that Castor had lost his fight. Therefore there must be someone insanely strong in the other town in the Mortal Realm as well.

Either way, there was no way of knowing any more unless he asked Castor himself.

Knite diverted some of his attention away from stabilising the Elemental Realm and instead accelerated Castor's reformation process.

This looks like it's going to be interesting.

Part 5

It seemed that there was really was no other option left for Godou other than confronting Knite himself. As much has he wanted to reject the idea, Godou resolved himself for the task.

However, as he was now, Godou could only see a very microscopic chance of him defeating Knite. Even though, he had new powers which may or may not be helpful, he couldn't didn't know what most of them did until he actually used them in battle. Godou wasn't even sure if he could activate Divine Wild Card Decree against Knite considering that it needed the enemy to have divinity.

However, it was in situations like this that Godou's true abilities began to shine. The lower his chance of victory, the faster his mind worked and the more his was able to press his limits. That's how it always had been. There was no way of knowing what happened until it happened so there was no point stressing when you can't do anything.

Nevertheless, Godou still decided to consult Lexus and Ferrex about the issue. After much discussion, Lexus seemed to have come up with a solution where Godou could try out his new skills to get a grasp on their abilities before the fight.

Godou gladly accepted his help. Although, Godou was the nonsensical sort of person whose ability to win increased the more likely they're about to lose, it didn't mean that he was arrogant enough to reject help when it appeared. If someone offered to make things easier for him then he would accept. If the opponent purposely showed an opening, then it would strike at it with all his might.

The disposition of doing whatever it takes to achieve victory. That was the every least that someone needed to have when going up against an opponent like Knite.

Lexus led him into the Hyperbolic Training Room.

"Okay. First thing's first, we need to protect the Divine Gem since we don't want it blowing up in our faces. Holy Barrier!"

Lexus erected a powerful barrier around the room then continued:

"Now from what I can see, this new power of yours will only activate in the presence of an enemy Divinity."

Godou nodded in agreement.

"Thus, as long as the conditions are met for that you will be able to use your new powers right?"

"Yeah, no offence but no-one here satisfies the conditions."

Hadn't it been established that no matter how strong a member of a religious order was, they couldn't obtain a divine aura? As a priest, Lexus would not qualify as a sparring partner.

[Are you sure about that Godou?]

"We have told you before haven't you haven't we? Church members can't exceed the bounds of a holy aura. However, there is one exception to this rule. The Divine Saint Variants."

Wait don't tell me… The shock of Godou's realisation must have shown on his face as he put two and two together as Lexus chuckled lightly and exclaimed:

"Yes! I propose that you spar with the Divine Saint of Freya! Luckily for you, he was in the area. However, as a result of fatigue due to an earlier battle with another Elemental Lord Candidate and casting various spells, he is only at around 10% of his normal level of power. So I will ask you…"

The atmosphere around Lexus suddenly seemed to change.

"Please be gentle with me~"

Lexus raised his arm in front of him. Godou felt a tremendous pressure erupt as Lexus released an intense holy aura.

"O heavenly messenger, come hither and deliver this plead to the great goddess…. O one who governs all beauty, thou faithful servant seeks your guidance!"

**Hostile Divinity detected. **

**The conditions for activating Divine Wildcard Decree have been met.**

Golden lights flashed. Lexus's holy aura began to change. Becoming purer. More sacred. And more powerful. More divine.

"I call upon thee, graceful one who houses the essences of the slain, grant your servant an avatar to collect the life of those to fall!"

Bathed in golden light, Lexus continued to chant. A disturbance started to appear in the space in front of him.

"I beg of you for I am thy vassal, eternally true and ready."

The disturbance started to change. Shaping itself into a more humanoid figure.

"I beg of you for I am thy medium, a subject of thou beauty and power."

Golden light coated over the disturbance like flakes, giving it a physical form. Godou was suddenly reminded of the manner in which Gegorus had been manifested.

"I beg of you for I am the symbol of Freya, may you be revered by your followers and envied by your enemies!"

Golden armour and weapons appeared around the disturbance. Appearing elegant, but without losing its original purpose of protection.

"Blasphemers! Behold the might of my power! And be grateful that you have been chosen to witness the grace of gods! O bountiful one who selects the souls of the afterlife, grant me the right to use your avatars as my champion!"

A tremendous pressure started to be emitted from the armoured figure which the disturbance had become.

"Heaven's Calling: Valkyries of Freya!"

With a final brilliant flash of golden light, Lexus finished his incantation. Floating before him was glowing golden suit of female armour.

Thin and graceful.

A fairylike existence.

Yet capable of emitting such a powerful impression of unrestrained violence.

A Valkyrie.

"Given my current weakened state, I guess a single Valkyrie would be only par with a level 400 dragon I would say? This pales in comparison to an Elemental Lord Candidate but I can always summon another one. Weakened as I am, my limit would about 30 of these at once? Certainly not enough to beat Knite but for sparring, it will suffice."

After saying such an outrageous comparison, Lexus exclaimed.

"Come Godou! I cannot teach you how to use your powers. However, there is no better training than experiencing an actual battle!"

In the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, one day was approximately equivalent to one and a half weeks. Therefore, roughly ten hours in the room would be equivalent to one hour in the outside world. Due to the Divine Gem in the room, skills did not have a cooldown and physical limitations are practically non-existent since Health, Mana and Stamina gain massive spurts in regeneration whenever low.

On the other hand, recovering to a condition better than where you were originally was impossible. The rapid regeneration was capped to the state you were in when you entered the room. In other words, taking advantage to the time altering effects for resting and recovering strength was impossible. Additionally, there was no way to recover from mental exhaustion inside the room.

Despite its flaws, the room was perfect for the purpose that Godou and Lexus needed.

After some time spent sparring and resting, inside and outside of the room respectively, they felt the return of an intensely powerful aura of light.

Thus was the signal for the beginning of the end of this troublesome incident.

It had been almost four hours had passed since their last battle.

True to his word, Knite had returned!


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Part 1

Turning time back a bit, after he had spent some time sparring with Lexus, Godou had gone to visit Hel and Inori to check how they were doing.

The room they were placed was a simple one. It had white walls and a single window which was opposite to the door.

In front of the window was a drawer full of medical supplies. On top of the drawer were some cups and a jug of water.

On either side of the drawer were two simple beds which Hel and Inori lay resting in.

Conversely, this had been the room that Godou and Ferrex had placed in when they had collapsed from Lexus's inhuman basic training program.

According to Lexus, Inori had overloaded her magic circuits or something. Either way it seemed like she would be hit with extreme fatigue for the next few days and would be unable to use magic for about a month.

Hel on the other hand had pushed her body way beyond her limits and was currently suffering mild paralysis. This was only temporary though but likewise it would take her about a month to fully recover.

When he entered, Godou had found that Inori had fall asleep. Hel on the other hand was conscious and lucid. She seemed to be staring at the jug of water with great intensity.

Hel glanced at him as he entered but didn't say anything. Instead she returned to glaring at the jug of water with great intensity and longing.

Sighing, Godou walked up and poured a glass of water from the jug. With all the moving about and fighting done today, it would be easy to get dehydrated.

He then offered the cup to Hel.

"I-I didn't ask for this."

Hel made no moves to accept the cup.

"I know that, but I'm doing this on my own accord. So here, take it."

However, Hel still didn't accept the cup.

"If you're being stubborn about this then I guess you don't want this as much as you thought you did."

Godou moved the cup away and saw desperation flirt across Hel's face for a spilt second. How cute.

He offered Hel the cup again. However, Hel only gave a weak sigh and explained.

"I can't move my arms right now…"

Oh right! That would explain why Hel hadn't tried to pour the water herself. The jug was only a metre away from her. Godou berated himself for not realising this eariler.

To reduce someone as strong as Hel to this level…Speaking of which, Inori and Badas were also in similar situations.

Because of him, they had gone through so trouble. Godou felt frustrated with himself.

Godou moved the cup to Hel's month. She took it without complaint.

He placed cup and sat down in a nearby chair.

"…"

Neither of them said anything else for a while.

It was a companionable silence.

Then Hel quietly muttered.

"That guy was strong. What happened afterwards?"

There was only one person that Hel could be talking about. Realising that Hel still didn't know the whole story, Godou filled her in about the bits she needed to know, reassuring her:

"This whole business with Knite is my responsibility. Relax and rest, Hel, allow me to take care of that guy."

Hel didn't seem as surprised as he thought she would. Perhaps living in such a world full of magic and monsters didn't make such things surprising. She didn't blame him for it either.

"Ultimately, Knite was the one who decided to cause all this trouble on his own."

This gratified him greatly. He felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

The debt he owed her, Godou promised that he would take it from Knite with interest.

They continued to chat on other more trivial topics.

About their experiences, about their interests.

A truly normal activity which Godou had not experienced in quite a while.

However, these peaceful times did not last.

Almost 4 hours since their last encounter, Godou felt the return of a tremendously powerful aura of light.

Bidding farewell to Hel with a smile that he hoped didn't appear too forced, Godou left the room.

Godou had spent roughly one hour in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber sparring with Lexus. The reason for this was because he only wanted to get a hold on what his powers could be like.

Fruitlessly training till the last minute– Since, he had no idea when Knite would return, he saw no point in wearing himself down with such an activity.

Rather, he felt that it would be wise to simple spend his remaining time relaxing, storing up the energy for when he needed it most.

Godou quietly left the Church of Freya. On the way he had passed by Lexus who simply nodded at him.

It seemed that Lexus had agreed to follow the "plan" he had proposed. Though, there were too little details to call it a plan.

Rather, it would be more accurate to call it a just in case measure.

Conversely, Godou had somehow managed to pick up a new skill from his sparing with Lexus.

Aura Sensing.

That was the name of the skill he had learnt accidentally in combat.

It was through the use of this new skill that he had sensed Knite's arrival.

**Aura Sensing**

**Allows greater understanding of aura based techniques and allows you to sense the aura of others.**

Godou's skill proficiency wasn't very high with Aura Sensing, so he had troubling distinguishing separate auras when he didn't look at them directly.

Basically, rather than allowing him to find someone like a human radar, his current level of Aura Sensing only gave him vague impression like if the person was far away or close by.

If he tried to extend the range of his sensing to his limits, then he would only find an unreadable mix of aura caused by too many people being in the vicinity.

However, like a lighthouse on a foggy night, Knite's aura was so intense that it was hard to miss.

Conversely, aura intensity was affected by stats like Fighting Spirit, Faith, Honour, Divinity etc. Aura amount referred to the resource that was being used to fuel the aura, be it Stamina, Mana or Health.

Godou hurried across the streets of Tellap.

The sun was beginning to set now. However this didn't mean that the monsters had stopped their attack. After all, monsters get a 50% stat boost at night. Nevertheless, that wasn't his problem now. Godou pushed all unnecessary thoughts out of his mind.

Knite aura appeared to be approaching him rather fast. It was as if he had no trouble finding Godou this time.

It was probably one of the features of Aura Sensing. Knite probably had the skill or something similar to it.

Godou was the same in that regard. As long as he met someone at least once, he would be able to identify how close they were form him no matter how many populated their current location was.

Godou searched from a place with the least amount of people in it. He headed to that location.

Innocent bystanders jumping to into help him on their own accord.

He would not allow Knite to cause any more unnecessary harm anymore. Nor would he hide behind another person's back.

Godou had decided. This was his fight now.

Step.

Something fell from the skies and landed lightly before him.

A glowing figure. A bright white radiance.

Knite appeared before him again.

"As promised, I have returned to continue my mission! By the way, how are the conditions of the Knights from before?"

Knite's first words showed a surprising amount of concern for someone who loved fighting so much. Godou really didn't know what to think of him in that regard.

"They will live."

He gave a simple response.

Godou had resolved himself to that task of fighting Knite, However, participating in fights when he didn't need to wasn't something that Godou wanted to develop a habit of doing.

Thus, Godou gave Knite one last chance to leave.

"As a pacifist who avoids unnecessary conflict, I will ask you one last time. Knite! Please give up on your mission and return to your Elemental Realm."

"Godou was your name wasn't it? Considering the fact that you have already fought against me earlier, that proposition of yours is quite hypocritical. Ho ho ho saying such things with your eyes full of fighting spirit. Your actions don't match your words at all! You're actually itching to fight as much as I am aren't you?"

However, Knite seemed determined to carry on with his mission. Rather, it seemed that a good fight was what he was after.

Knite's accusation actually struck the core of his being, however, pretending that he didn't hear it, Godou raised the valid point.

"Are you sure about this? After all, you're not in top form."

Currently, Godou was in a party with Lexus and Ferrex.

Because both of his party members were priest type characters, they had the ability to view the lifeforce information of others.

This ability could apparently be shared throughout the party. Conversely, although Ferrex did not have a physical body on the continent of Versailles, or the Mortal Realms, as it was called, he could still be invited into parties.

Thus Godou could see 3 bars around Knite.

One represented his Health which was at around 60%.

One represented his Mana which was full.

And the last one represented his Stamina which was also at around 60%.

It seemed that Knite ability to recover Health was sorely lacking for some reason.

"Humph! Indeed my ability to heal is inhibited by the damage to the Elemental Realm of Light, however, fighting under disadvantageous conditions is what brings out the joy of battle more clearly! After all, wasn't there that famous saying... uhm… With each step closer I become to Death, the more my sharper my senses become! "

"No such saying exists!"

Basically, it was like starving yourself before a battle to make your blade "sharper". That kind of twisted logic.

However, Godou felt disheartened by the fact that he could actually relate to Knite's statement.

The worse off he became, the faster his mind worked and the lighter his limbs became. He had felt that sensation several times before.

Refusing to accept the undeniable similarities between himself and Knite, Godou scowled and irritably muttered:

"Just don't regret it if that's what causes you to lose then!"

Godou was about to start, however Knite stopped him with an outscretched hand.

"Wait! Before were start! I have a question that's been biting at be ever since I saw you. What are you? I sense Divinity from you but you are different from those Lesser Gods stuck in the Mortal Realm. Neither are you something that has gained Divinity from being worshiped like that holy spirit from before. Rather, you have similarities with True Gods in the Immortal Realms, but that the same time you seem more wild and unrestrained."

How should I answer such a question? Godou responded in a rare tone of challenge.

"I am the player Godou. My race is Heretic God. My class is Overlord. I will be the one who defeat you."

"An Overlord huh… Ha ha What a coincidence! Could this be karma? I missed the Sword Saint but encountered you instead! Ha ha ha very well Godou, let us begin this fight!"

Part 2

"As the one who holds each and every victory, I am the strongest. Man and devil, all who harbor enmity will be vanquished. Hence I will smash through all enemies in my way!"

Godou started off by whispering the activation incantation he had set to activate Gift of the Origin.

Although he didn't particularly like the idea of using these words, it was what he was most comfortable and familiar with.

**Gift of the Origin has been activated.**

**All fame has been consumed and converted into raw power. All cooldowns have been reset. You class has temporarily advanced to Divine Overlord.**

**+ 245% all stats**  
**+ 245% Damage Output**  
**+ 245% Damage Reduction (capped at 99%)**  
**+ Further 245% Health**  
**+ Further 245% Mana**  
**+ Further 245% Divinity**  
**+ Further 245% Stamina**  
**+ Further 98% the effects of all buffs**  
**+ 24 levels of all non-Divine combat related skills and masteries**  
**+ 245% Health, Stamina and Divinity regeneration**  
**+ able to ignore activation requirements of skills**  
**+ All experience gained from battle will be converted to fame**  
**+ You have temporarily gained access to the skill [Realm of the Overlord]**  
**Duration: 24 Hours.**

**You aura is overflowing.**  
**X 3 all stats**

**You have activated Might of the Ruler.**  
**+1454 Fighting Spirit**  
**+ Psychological pressure has been applied on your opponent (due to the effects of the target's high fighting spirit this effect has been negated).**  
**+ Effects the enemy intimidation skill High Elements Pressure has been negated.**

**Survival Instinct has activated.**  
**+Your damage output increases as your condition worsens**  
**+ ability to detect danger has increased**

**Overpowering Will has activated**  
**+You are able to overcomes your limits**  
**+Stamina has become infinite**

Godou felt tremendous surge of power though his body as the skill activated. His aura suddenly exploded around him in the form of pitch black flames, the intensity of it caused disturbances around him.

Never before had his in-game body felt as light and easy to move as it did now. It was a strange feeling of omnipotence.

"Ho Such power! This is just like a Divine Saint Knight's Divine Possession."

Knite watched him seemingly interested by this change. Then he too released his aura around him like armour. A brilliant white aura shone, contrasted greatly with Godou's black aura.

However, he didn't attack.

Considering Knite's personality it was highly likely that he would want to learn more about Godou current capabilities before getting serious.

Rather than caution, it was more like gauging up how much he should hold back to have fun. At least that was the impression Godou got.

However, it was precisely because of that haughty attitude that Godou could afford to take the time to get used to his new abilities.

He quickly read the skill description for [Realm of the Overlord].

**Realm of the Overlord**

**Using your surroundings in the mortal realm as a basis, create a temporary version of a Divine Realm. A suitable keystone is required for the creation of the divine realm.**

**Currently a suitable keystone is present.**

A convenient skill for his current situation. If the fighting took place elsewhere then he wouldn't have to worry about any more collateral damage right? Although he had never remembered when he had acquired such an item, it seemed that the keystone requirement had apparently been met.

Godou activated Realm of the Overlord.

"Realm of the Overlord!"

As he did so, a ring of illusionary fire formed around him and rapidly expanded, rushing past Knite and beyond. The sky changed colours and became a distorted rainbow of colours.

**You have created a Divine Realm. A portion of the world around you has been copied to create your own space in the boundary between the mortal and immortal worlds.**

**Size of Realm: 42 Hectares**

**All other inhabitants in this realm will be rejected back to their original places when you leave**  
**Due to leaving the mortal realm, the effects of the Contract of Gods no longer limit your abilities. While in the Immortal Realms, Divine Tolerance becomes infinite.**

**Your aura is overflowing.**

Godou looked around. The paved ground, the buildings, they all appeared the same as they were before. It seemed that apart from the sky, everything seemed identical from before.

However when he extended the range of his Aura Sensing, Godou found that he could no longer sense the mixed confusion of auras that had been caused due to the presence of so many people in the city.

Instead, he vaguely sensed the presence of 1 or 2 other entities present in the realm besides himself and Knite. Godou took note of this. It seemed like he had the ability to choose who got transported to this realm.

The other entities were probably Lexus and Ferrex(?) who had been in a party with Godou when he activated the skill.

"Hahaha! To think that you would have the ability to create your own realm. Well, now I don't have to worry about holding back to reduce collateral damage. I guess I really can't look down on you any further."

Knite looked around the realm Godou had created. There was a wariness around him that hadn't been present earlier.

"Now, if you've finished powering up, I will resume my mission!"

Without waiting for Godou's response, Knite began his assault. He closed the distance between them in an instant and launched an aura enhanced punch!

Fast!

However, in Royal Road, the agility stat was a stat that also altered time perception. Godou's agility stat had been multiplied by several times due to aura and Gift of the Origin.

Coupled with the intense concentration that he was able to pull out in battle due to his real body's disposition, Godou was able to barely avoid the attack.

"You- I never said I was finished!"

Please stop deciding all these things by yourself!

Godou wanted to say all this and more as he leapt away from Knite to create some distance between them.

It was an inhuman jump that he probably wouldn't have been able to perform normally as he sailed over the roofs of several buildings before landing on a double storey house.

**Divine Wildcard Decree has activated.**

**+ 230% to all stats**  
**+ 224% to all stats due to the effects of Gift of the Origin**

**You can gain access to Wildcard forms which are selected randomly.**

**Max duration: Infinite due to being in the Immortal Realms**

Whilst doing this, Godou activated the "new" skill he had unlocked quite recently. Surprisingly enough these "Wildcard Forms" that the skill provided were actually quite familiar abilities.

Well, since it was shaped from his desires it seemed inevitable that it would take the form of powers which he was most used to.

Normally, the skill required Godou's opponent to have Divinity for him to activate it. However, Gift of the Origin allowed him to ignore skill activation requirements.

The only problem was that the Wildcard Forms were selected at random so he had no way of knowing which one he would get. After some sparring with Lexus, Godou had gotten a pretty good grasp on this skill.

Divine Wildcard Decree was a skill that gave Godou access to 4 different Wildcard Forms depending on his luck. Each Wildcard form gave him access to different passive skills. He was also able to switch Wildcard Forms in battle. However, once he had decided to switch Forms, the Form he was using before would become unusable for the rest of the time Divine Wildcard Decree was active.

Normally, every single Wildcard Form caused a massive strain on his Divine Tolerance because his Divinity was so low. However, this problem seemed to be subverted now that his Divinity had become infinite due to being in his own realm.

Conversely, Godou had named the Wildcard forms with names that he was most comfortable with using in battle.

Anyway, back to the battle, Knite hadn't been standing idle while Godou had jumped away.

Stomping down hard to change the direction of his charge, Knite had also jumped and made a beeline at Godou, smashing through the buildings in front of him without care.

Godou tried to make another leap away from Knite, managing to jump just before Knite reached the rooftop he was currently on.

However before he could get out of reach, Knite created a transparent double of himself made of light which blocked Godou's exit.

"You can clone yourself?!"

Taking advantage of Godou's shock, Knite managed to grab hold of Godou's leg and smash him downwards through the rooftop and to the floors below.

Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii!

Additionally, Knite's light clone broke up into small balls of light which floated around Knite. Each of these light balls rained down white laser beams down the spot where Godou landed from above.

**You have lost 1434 Health.**

**You have lost 11435 Health.**

**You have lost 567 Health.**

**You have lost 10487 Health.**

**You have lost 17 Health.**

**You have lost…**

Tch, this guy is getting more and more ridiculous.

The battle had barely started but already Godou was already losing chunks of his Health.

His back ached from the impact of being smashed down the roof. It seemed his fall damage immunity won't protect him from that kind of attack.

Some of the laser beams pierced straight through his body while others merely grazed him or shot close to him, pelting him with rubble. Either way, these attacks really hurt!

Godou activated the Wildcard Form which had been randomly selected. Having something to defend himself with was at least better than nothing!

**Wildcard Form "Bull" has been selected.**

**The effects of the skill [Overpowering Will] have been greatly enhanced.**

**While this Wildcard Form is active the following passive skills are active:**  
**[Earth Armament]**

**Earth Armament**  
**Charge your body with the aura of the land to greatly enhance your toughness and physical strength. Health regeneration also increases greatly.**

Godou's aura changed colours, from pitch black to a bronze earthy colour. It condensed itself around him like armour, similar to what Knite's aura had done.

Like all his other Wildcard Forms, this ability had been based on Godou's desire to have to use a familiar power. In other words, they had been based on his first authority, the Ten Incantations that he had usurped from the war god Verethragna in reality.

However, they were not the same.

Verethragna's second form, which this Wildcard form had been named after, granted him immense strength proportional of whatever he wanted to apply his strength to.

Meanwhile, the Wildcard Form "Bull" condensed his aura around him like armour, not only greatly enhancing his physical strength but also enhancing his defensive abilities as well!

Of course, this only applied when there was some part of his body connected to the ground or something solid touching the ground.

Laser beams of light continued to rain down on him, though they did considerably less damage due to the protection of his aura. However, although Earth Armament increased his toughness, it was really too naïve to rely on that alone to defend himself.

"Haahh!"

Godou ran over to the walls of the building and smashed it down. He pushed the building with his enhanced strength from the other side forcing the building to collapse.

The rain of lasers stopped as Knite was forced to move away from his collapsing foothold. He leapt and landed lightly in front of Godou.

"Oh so you can condense your aura to such a degree as well- No, it looks similar but it's really a different technique. Now, let's see what it does!"

Knite closed the distance between them again in an instant. Wasn't this guy supposed to be weakened? A movement technique?

This level of speed was undoubtedly much faster than Godou as he was currently.

Godou couldn't jump away in time.

He was also wary since being airborne would negate the effects of Earth Armament. So instead, he lowered his centre of gravity and raised his arms to guard his head like a boxer.

**You have lost 34543 Health.**

Godou grunted as Knite managed to kick him under his guard. Although, his aura mostly protected him, the impact still travelled through. Nevertheless, Godou withstood the attack and managed to grab hold of Knite's body.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaah!"

With a yell, he threw Knite has hard as he could at another nearby building.

However, with an inexplicable display of martial art prowess, Knite managed to right himself in mid throw and land on the side of the building without breaking it.

He then leapt at Godou, an axe of light forming in his hands. A blindingly bright white meteor.

Taking that attack directly would be bad!

Warned by his instincts, Godou leapt with all of his might out of Knite's path.

Boooooooooooooom!

A large crater formed from the impact. Additionally, the instant after the impact, a rune like symbol formed within the crater and a pillar of white flames surged out of it.

Godou managed to dodge Knite's direct attack but was unable to avoid the pillar of white flames which rose rapidly at him. He was also in mid-air so the effects of Earth Armament where no longer active.

"Create!"

Godou created a mana weapon beneath him without touching it. It managed to absorb Knite's spell before it dealt any serious damage.

He also tried to kick the mana weapon back at Knite but it broke from the impact of his kick.

An explosion of white flames erupted from the broken mana weapon. Due to the attributes of Divine mana weapons not being able to damage their creator, Godou was unaffected.

Knite on the other hand, took a direct hit from the explosion. Godou checked Knite's health, it had hardly decreased at all.

To have so much health as well as such high physical and magical offensive power… Come to think of it, now that he didn't have his scythe with him anymore and wasn't just blinding rushing into close combat, Knite was showing off a variety of different abilities.

"What a broken character"

As befitting of an entity that was akin to a final hidden boss. Unknowingly, Godou's lips had twisted into a grotesque savage smile as he said those words.

"I don't want to hear that coming from you. Sigh~ Those mana weapons are turning out to be pretty annoying."

On the other hand, Knite seemed to have his own complaints that the even more broken existence that was just barely able to keep up with him despite being only a fraction of his level.

Granted he wasn't at full power and was undoubtedly winning their exchange, but still, it was almost unheard of for something like this to occur.

Against such a worthy opponent, it was only proper that he paid his respects by going at full power!

"Since you've given me a show, I guess it's my turn to show you something interesting."

Godou grew wary at Knite's proclamation. Knite drew another rune like symbol in the air, his finger burning in white flames.

A portal appeared in the place where the rune had been drawn and the ghostly figure of a horse trotted out of the portal.

Godou tensed, was Knite summoning more elementals to help him fight? However, the horse changed shape again, becoming more slender, stick-like, with a blade forming at one end.

Godou recognised it.

It was Knite's scythe which Badas had broken earlier that day!

However, as it was now, it seemed cloudy and almost intangible even. Just what is this guy planning?

Seeing Godou's confusion, Knite gave a friendly explanation.

"For Elementals, there are 2 ways of growing stronger. The first way is by gradually levelling up. The second way is by combining with other elementals of the same element. Now, there are two types of fusions which an elemental can have. Both require the consent of both parties. First is the permanent Elemental Fusion. This can only be done between two elementals at around the same level of power. It also requires some time for a certain ritual to be conducted. Basically, it's a very complicated process that requires time to do."

Knite's body suddenly started to emit a dazzlingly bright light. The scythe also began to shine.

"The second one is the temporary Elemental Fusion. For this one, there are fewer restrictions. The main one being that the two parties are both Elementals. Of course, the power boost given by it is a lot less than a permanent one but in terms of practicality, temporary fusion wins hands down. In a permanent fusion, the memories and personalities of sides are mixed together, however, for a temporary fusion, one participant acts as the base and receives a boost in power."

The forms of Knite and his scythe became to combine together.

Lights flashed around them. A breathtaking sight.

During the time Knite was giving his explanation, Godou could find no openings whatsoever to jump into.

"I will have to thank you for being us to out of the mortal realm. Otherwise, I would not be allowed to use this! Elemental Fusion!"

The flashing stopped and Knite's overall appearance changed. His armour like parts became more compact with a horse motif.

White flames were emitted from various parts of his body giving him a wild and unrestrained impression.

His mask like visage had also opened up and Godou saw that Knite's face was vaguely human like. However, with his pale, most transparent looking skill and glowing blue eyes, that was where the resemblance ended.

Using Aura Sensing, Godou saw that the amount and intensity of Knite's aura had increased dramatically.

"This is getting ridiculous."

Knite power level right now was probably around his normal level of strength before he got weakened by Gegorus and Badas. Evidently, the effects of Elemental fusion had been weakened by the fact that both participants were not in perfect shape.

However, even before Knite used Elemental Fusion, it would have been a stretch to say that Godou was barely keeping up with Knite.

Indeed, even before fusion, Knite had outclassed him in several areas. Such was the difference between the two of them.

Thus the current Godou was unable to achieve victory.

"I'm starting again."

With was from Knite's warning that Godou stopped thinking and tightened his guard. He glared at Knite intently.

Then,

Bang!

**You have lost 61489 Health.**

Before Godou could react, Knite appeared in front of him and delivered a devastating blow.

Knite followed up with a blindingly fast series of combo attacks.

In the end, Godou could do nothing but tighten his guard and endure the storm of blows as he watched his Health rapidly decrease.

Although he could vaguely see Knite's movements, Knite's relentless assault was too much for him to concentrate on anything other than defending.

Not good. I've lost over 70% of my health already!

Godou concentrated his power and stomped down as hard as he could at Knite's feet.

Bam!

An attack powered by the aura of the land!

The ground tore up.

A crater like depression formed where Godou's foot had landed.

Reflexively, Knite jumped back to avoid this attack.

It was in that moment that Godou jumped away, trying to build some distance between himself and Knite. However,

"Naïve!"

He had underestimated Knite boosted speed.

Knite closed the distance between them again with a flying kick!

"Create!"

In the moment before Knites kick hit him, Godou managed to create a mana spear which touched a building, hereby allowing him to use the effects of Earth Armament to lessen the damage dealt to him.

Nevertheless, he was still struck by the kick which sent him flying through the air. He smashed through the wall of some multi-storey building.

Grunting, Godou got to his feet.

There was no doubt about it.

The "Bull" was no longer effective against Knite.

Having determined that, Godou immediately switched to his next random Wildcard Form.

Adapting flexibly to situations as they arise, that was one of the key traits that made Godou what he was!

**Wildcard Form "Warrior" has been selected.**

**Weapons created with the [Mana Weapon Creation] gain the [Divine Right] attribute.**

**While this Wildcard Form is active the following passive skills are active:**  
**[Telekinesis]**

**Telekinesis**

**Move objects using your thoughts alone. You can only carry things that you would be able to lift physically.**

**Divine Right**

**A status defect that cannot be negated. Attacks with this attribute will deal no damage but instead weaken the effects of the target's active buffs, transformations and skills/attacks which have been boosted by these buffs for one day. Continuous hits with this defect will result in the target being unable to use all buffing skills for one day.**

A lucky draw for his current situation.

Based on Verethragna's tenth form, this Wildcard Form allowed him to weaken his opponent's fighting potential!

Godou's aura had changed from bronze to gold. With the effects of Earth Armament lost, his aura released itself from it's condensed armour-like form and became wild and freeflowing.

He immediately began to create as many mana weapons as he could.

His mana weapons, which normally had a bluish glow, had also turned gold.

Swords, daggers, spears… Godou created as many weapons as he could.

As soon as he created a weapon, he immediately supported it with telekinesis.

Thus, Godou surrounded himself in a brilliant golden radiance.

Although it hadn't been his intention, Knite's kick had bought Godou the distance he needed to do this safely.

As he felt Knite's aura approaching, Godou jumped out of the hole he had made when he crashed into the house, and on to a nearby roof.

He caught sight of Knite strolling casually on the street below and immediately sent all the golden mana weapons he had created so far to fly at Knite.

Knite stood his ground and made a stance as if he was going to bat them all away with his fist.

Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik!

With the sound of shattering glass, each mana weapon exploded on impact, cutting away at Knite's boosted power and sealing it.

Taking advantage of Knite surprise, Godou ran.

Sometimes he jumps across rooftops, other times he ran on the streets.

He just ran.

It was impossible for Godou to hide from Knite in this realm because he had never learnt how to hide his aura. Thus Godou didn't have the intention of trying to hide.

Instead, he was trying to buy himself more time. Trying to increase the distance between himself and Knite.

While he ran, he generated Golden Mana Weapons with abandon.

Time was of the essence. From observation, it seemed that each weapon type reduced power by the same amount no matter what the size.

Thus, Godou prioritised on creating small weapons like knifes and daggers which required less time to create.

The skill level boost from Gift of the Origin meant that he was able to generate weapons much faster than normal.

Thus tens of golden weapons gradually became hundreds. From each weapon, golden light shone.

Like golden lanterns in a festival.

A golden radiance lit up the sky.

Knite had recovered his senses and started to pursue Godou at some point in time.

Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii! Pii!

Since there was now quite some distance between them, Knite had started firing laser beams of light at him again.

Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik! Smiiiik!

However, the gold weapons also weakened and negated attacks which had been enhanced by buffs!

Godou made a portion of the weapons to stand between him and Knite like a shield.

He launched about half of the remaining weapons all in a volley in Knite's direction.

Like a spectacular shower of shooting stars, the golden weapons rained down.

Knite, now wary of the weapons, took evasive action and managed to dodge to bulk of them. They exploded harmlessly as they collided with something.

As for the ones that he couldn't avoid, Knite tried to shoot them down with lasers and block them with his aura.

However, the golden weapons slashed through such efforts and continued onwards to strike Knite!

Smiiiik! Smiiiik!

Little by little, the sense of pressure that Knite emitted was reduced.

Smiiiik! Smiiiik!

Little by little, Godou felt his minuscule chances of winning increase.

Godou didn't try spraying the remaining weapons all in Knite's direction again. Due to Knite's speed, that would be a grave folly.

Rather than attack rashly and get evaded, it was better to advance slowly to assume certain annihilation.

Thus Godou's counter attack began.

Tap Tap Tap…

Footsteps echoed as someone entered the church of Freya. More accurately, the church of Freya replica that had been created in Godou's temporary realm.

Lexus was kneeling in front of the church altar, no the replica of the church altar, with his hands clasped together as if he was praying.

A bowl full of holy water lay in front of him.

Images of the fight being conducted between a certain Overlord and an Elemental Lord Candidate of Light were being displayed on the surface of the water.

Obviously, he was using a spell of some sort to do this.

The water's surface showed him images of…

Godou running through the temporary realm, desperately trying to strike Knite with golden weapons which flew like miniature comets…

Knite chasing after Godou, trying to shoot him or otherwise slow him down with white laser beams of light…

It was like a strange game of tag. And a dangerous one at that…

Tap tap tap…

Lexus was mediating right now. Recovering lost mana and expended stamina.

Gradually, he was recovering from the fierce battle he had had with another Elemental Lord Candidate of Light.

Of course, in the event that Godou lost to Knite, he fully intended to step up and continue the fight if necessary.

However, even after considering the strength that he could recover during Godou and Knite's fight, it would be unlikely that he could be able to win without dying in his current state.

Thus, although it wasn't complete unrelated to fighting Knite, the reason he was mediating was an entirely different matter.

Tap tap tap.

The footsteps stopped behind him. Lexus didn't have to turn around to know who was behind him.

Had he turned, he would have seen a youth, around 18 or 19 years old, with messy dark hair who was wearing an open collared red and tan robe with a white toga wrapped over and around his torso. A golden pendant hung from his neck. A blank expression was on his face.

"So someone in your situation is able to obtain this kind of form in this realm?"

Without turning, Lexus asked the question somewhat curious.

The youth, Ferrex, sat down on one of the chairs in front of the altar and stared at the bowl of water. He responded.

"Basically yes. This place is somewhere in the middle of an artificial space. It's basically the same thing as the Immortal Realms where the afterlives are located. My pendant also seems to be have been used as the keystone for this realm so it got temporary combined with my "soul" world."

Ferrex was the type of person who would appear cold and unfeeling to outsiders. However, people who have known him for a while will know otherwise. Although he generally did not talk much, he always tried his best to explain about things when asked.

As they watched the fight continue, Ferrex suddenly asked:

"Why did you lie about not being able to handle Knite in your current state? Surely you could have been used "Return" to revive yourself to perfect condition."

"Too many people have seen me in my worn out state so it would raise too many questions if I suddenly regained power. Plus, Knite's only after Godou so we might as well just let them duke it out. This is a perfect chance to see what Godou can do if, after all you didn't see how he defeated the Divine Saint of Embinyu either did you? If worse comes to worse and Godou loses, then I will fight."

"Training someone just for the sake of collecting data… I feel like you've done this to us before…"

In response to Ferrex's bitter remark, Lexus countered with a question of his own.

"Why aren't you helping Godou then? There's no way you wouldn't have noticed."

What Lexus had been referring to was the lift of the restrictions on Divine powers in the temporary realm.

Divine Powers did not refer to the Overlord's Divine Decrees alone. The Divine Saint's Heaven's Call Arsenal was also an application of Sacred Energy, or more accurately Divine Power.

Thus, having no restrictions on Divine Power meant that Heaven's Calling spells could be used without any cost.

Hence, a Divine Saint like Seirph would be able to sustain his angel winged form without having to worry about conserving strength.

Hence, a Divine Saint like Lexus would be able to swarm the field with as many Valkyries as he wanted.

Hence, a Divine Saint like Ferrex would be able to continuously nuke the battlefield with meteorites.

Hence, all of the aforementioned broken characters would also be able to revive themselves continuously from death with no cost.

In other words, they were practically invincible.

However, Ferrex answered belied the power he represented.

"My current state is unstable. Given the high magic resistances of both sides, I probably wouldn't be much help unless I used Heaven's Calling. If I were to cast toned down versions of spells like that the seal I placed on myself will break and something even worse than Knite will be released."

"You're being too hard on yourself. On a side note, what do you think of Godou golden mana weapons? In all the centuries I have lived through, I have only come across a handful of others with the same ability."

As if he had been trying to distract Ferrex from depressing thoughts, Lexus suddenly changed the subject of the conversation to the ongoing fight.

Ferrex appeared to think for a while as he observed Godou's abilities as displayed on the water's surface. Then he simply said:

"A skill that negates the target's ability to use buffs and aura. A terrifying nightmare for those who rely entirely on powering up to fight."

"I agree. Let's pity the unfortunate fool with such a fighting style who ends up fighting Godou…"

Part 3

"Hahahahaha brilliant Godou! Not only have you managed to completely negate my ability to use aura, you also managed to force me to revert back to my true form!"

Of course the one who proclaimed this happily was of course, Knite.

A battle manic whose spirits refused to be dampened even in the worst situations.

Godou could only frown at such extreme optimism.

It had taken him quite some time for him to completely do it but he had finally managed to completely subject Knite under his "Divine Right".

Conversely, the current distance between the two of them was about 150 metres. Knite's speed was so great this Godou felt that he needed at least this much to stay away from Knite.

During this interval, Godou had managed to recover some of his lost Health as well. He was at around 40% now.

However, the same thing also applied for Knite so it wasn't exactly a win-win situation. Knite was still at around 60% Health.

Normally Divine Right would also increase the strain on Godou's Divine Tolerance as it struck the target. The stronger the effects negated by Divine Right, the more Divine Tolerance strain was created.

However, due to not being in the mortal world, his Divine Tolerance was infinite and so Godou didn't have to worry about most of the drawbacks of Divine Wildcard Decree.

A glowing cloaked figure wrapped in robe-like armour that also appeared to be part of this body.

Indeed, Knite had been reverted to his original form.

However, that didn't mean that Knite had given up on the fight.

Pii! Pii! Pii!

Knite shot more laser beams of white light at Godou. Due to the speed of the lasers, they were difficult to dodge so Godou had directed a cluster of weapons to stand in front of him like a shield. However,

"Arh!"

**You have lost 60325 Health.**

This time, Knite's laser beams simply sheared through Godou's weapons as if they weren't there. They continued traveling striking Godou in various parts of his body.

"Those lasers aren't considered magic?!"

Staggering from the pain, Godou started to run again.

His mana weapons still had the ability to absorb magic attacks. However, it seems that they couldn't absorb Knite's lasers which were a purely elemental attack.

Not good.

The Divine Right attribute had allowed him to use the mana weapons to block Knite's boosted attacks.

But now that Knite was in his base form it seemed this no longer applied.

He could still use telekinesis to attack but Knite's resistances were too high for him to apply telekinesis directly on him. Conversely, Godou couldn't use it directly on himself either.

Godou switched Wildcard Forms.

Looking at the situation now, he would probably be able to make it somehow with either of the 2 remaining Forms he had left.

The remaining Golden Mana Weapons simultaneously exploded was they dropped on the ground as the telekinesis supporting them vanished.

**Wildcard Form "Goat" has been activated.**

**While this Wildcard Form is active the following passive skills are active:**

**[Shared Mana Pool]**  
**[Electro Master]**

**Shared Mana Pool**  
**Combines the mana of all party members into a single mana pool**

**Electro Master**  
**Grants lightning control. You can directly convert mana into elemental lightning.**

It appeared!

Godou's aura changed from gold to electric blue.

His mana pool explosively expanded as it became linked with that of Lexus and Ferrex who were mediating in a safe location.

Sparks of electricity were emitted around him.

A strange feeling of omnipotence.

Verethragna's ninth incarnation, the [Goat], had the power to control thunder and lightning.

However, the target must be a common enemy recognized by the people and there was the major caveat of taking the life force of nearby people indiscriminately.

Compared to that, the Wildcard Form version of it was a lot more convenient, simply letting him use lighting and granting him access to his party members' mana pool.

Ferrex had once said that divine powers were controlled by the user's imagination.

Godou recalled his memories from the time he sparred against Lexus and released a thunderstrike.

A flash of lightning was fired from his right hand, giving off the stench of ozone from the ionized air as the intense electrical current headed straight for Knite. At the same time, Godou did not forget to direct his awareness towards the sky.

Thunderclouds were summoned into the distorted sky, and these heavy clouds rumbled with thunder.

"Ho! You can control lightning as well?!"

Knite exclaimed with surprise was as he dodged lightning coming from in front and above at the same time.

Apparently, Divine Right didn't stop him from using certain movement type skills.

Pii! Pii! Pii!

Additionally, Knite retaliated by firing his laser beams as well.

They leapt around the replicated city, each trying to shoot the other down their respective elemental attacks.

A sad scene of destruction was caused to the replicated city whenever one of their attacks missed.

Building destroyed. Street tiles ripped up.

Godou was thankful of the fact that he had transported them here. Who knows what kind of chaos would be erupting had they done this in the mortal realm.

Being struck by lightning would cause severe burns and a massive shockwave impact.

Normally, Knite would have been able to use his aura to protect himself from the worst of this.

However, Knite did not currently have the ability to use his aura.

Thus, in addition to blowing him back, Godou was finally able to deal some to damage Knite.

Realising this, Godou channelled an enormous amount of mana into each of his attacks.

He had a strange feeling of certainty. How well he performed in this stage of the battle would greatly affect the outcome of the fight!

Godou ran around shooting thunderbolts, Knite hot in pursuit.

He felt a large amount of mana gather at Knite's location.

Godou turned to see Knite condensing light into the shape of a sword.

Swing!

Knite swung his sword and a huge slash of light flew at Godou.

Responding to this Godou condensed lightning into a ball in front of him and used it to block the slash.

However, Knite's flying slash cut straight through the ball and struck Godou.

A flash of pain.

Gritting his teeth with annoyance, Godou bombarded Knite with lightning bolts, determined to stop him from swinging that light sword again.

Regardless of whether or not Knite was using buffs he was still managed to outclassed Godou in all aspects.

Knite dodged some of these attacks and cut down the ones he couldn't using his light sword.

Godou felt a moment of triumph when one of his lightning attacks managed to break Knite's light sword.

However, that feeling was quickly squashed as Knite condensed light to generate more weapons.

What an overpowered ability.

Against such a powerful offense Godou was forced to put most of his efforts into trying to avoid Knite's attacks.

However, focusing on defence alone was the same as handing over the control of the battle to Knite. Such an action would spell nothing but defeat.

Thus Godou didn't neglect his own offense either!

He attacked Knite with lightning strikes whenever he could and did his best to stay out of Knite's reach.

If Knite caught up to him now then that would spell the end of everything.

A sudden joint of inspiration hit Godou was he watched Knite create and fight with his light weapons.

Godou focused on the image of a simple sword.

"Create!"

With mana he used his mana weapon creation skill to generate the sword he envisioned. However, that was not all he did.

While the sword was being created he also mixed in the lightning element into his mana weapon.

The end result was a lighting sword with similar abilities to the light sword that Knite had made before.

Surprisingly, Godou had managed to create this correctly on the first go. Was that the effects of Gift of the Origin boosting his skill level proficiency?

Thus, Godou experimented with the various effects the different weapons had.

Each of these weapons was an extremely condensed form of mana and lightning element. Thus, they did more damage than normal thunderbolts.

However, they still broke after one or two uses and were a lot easier to evade than thunderbolts.

Nevertheless, this discovery had greatly increased the variety of attacks Godou could use.

A lightning sword could send out ranged slashes of electricity.

When thrown, a lighting spear would transform into a piercing bolt of lightning. Etc etc

Thus, mixing in his lightning weapons with thunderbolts from both his body and the sky, Godou managed to gradually chip away at Knite's health.

However, no matter how you put it, from an observer's perspective it was clear that Godou was the one getting pushed back in the fight.

Despite the fact that Godou's Health regeneration was a lot faster than Knite's because the Elemental Realm of Light had been damaged…

Despite the fact that Godou had more mana than him because he had access to Ferrex and Lexus's own vast stores of mana…

Despite the fact that Knite had been greatly weakened because of his inability to use aura and other buffs…

Despite all these advantages…

There was still an unbridgeable gap between their abilities.

Nevertheless, whenever Knite approached and tried to bring the fight to close quarters combat, Godou released lightning at him, keeping him at bay.

As long as there was a chance for him to win, he would not give up!

Additionally, his Survival Instinct skill increased his damage output the lower his Health and Mana were.

Thus, time flew by was the two combatants fought it out in a bizarre game of cat and mouse. However, engrossed as they were with the fighting, the notion of time might as well have been non-existent to the two.

"Hahaha! Interesting! How will you react to this Godou!"

Laughing out from the joy of battle, Knite sent 9 balls of light around Godou.

Then, each of the light balls grew in size and became a light clone!

The light clones jumped at Godou all at the same time.

"Damn it! In that case—"

Godou summoned lightning which descended from the thundercloud, surrounding himself in 360 degrees with lightning for protection.

The stench of ionized air stifled his nostrils, while his assailants were all swept away by the lightning — no, just as he was thinking that, the real Knite leapt at him from above.

Using his clones as distractions, the real one had jumped into the air.

No time to evade!

Godou charged up was much electricity was Knite would allow him to and fired. At the same time, Knite skewered him with a several thrown spear of light.

Boom!

An explosion erupted as both attacks struck their targets.

Simultaneous hits!

Ignoring the pain of his injuries, Godou immediately leapt away from Knite.

Thunder rumbled. Light flashed.

Thus the flashy battle between lightning and light continued.

Knite was struck by lightning many times and blown away backwards. However, Godou wasn't without his own injuries either.

Knite's laser beams pierced through him with increasing frequency as the fight dragged on.

However, the battle could not continue like this eternality.

Eventually, the flashes white light stopped.

Eventually, the rumbling of thunder also stopped.

Both Divine Overlord and Elemental Lord Candidate had completely exhausted their immense reserves of mana.

"So this is the limit of the Goat huh?"

Godou spoke for the first time in a while.

Less than 1% Health remaining.

Godou stood panting in the middle of a devastated street. Despite this, he felt no physical fatigue. After all, his Overpowering Will skill had made his stamina infinite.

Complete destruction.

That was the state of the replicated city in the temporary realm.

Almost 42 hectares of the replicated town of Tellap had been completely destroyed during this arduous clash between lightning and light.

Conversely, one of the exceptions to this rule of destruction was the replica of the church of Freya. A powerful barrier had been erected around that building which neither of their attacks could break.

Knite stood around 15 metres in front of him.

Unlike Godou, Knite did not have infinite stamina, however, he didn't seem was affected by this as he should have been.

Over 15% Health remaining.

A truly ridiculous existence.

Even more so if you considered the fact that Knite had started the fight with almost half his Health gone.

Godou couldn't help but think that way after experiencing Knite's power first hand.

However,

Not giving up. Not doubting his own victory. Adapting to and overcoming obstacles as they arise.

As long it existed, Godou could do whatever it took to drag out that tiny chance of victory.

Godou glared at Knite, eyes burning with fighting spirit.

It had finally come to this.

**Survival Instinct**  
**Current Bonus: + 248% Damage Overall Output**

Godou used the final Wildcard Form available to him.

As he did so, his electric blue aura changed to a dark crimson.

There would be no more running away from Knite now.

Based on Verethragna's fourth incantation, this Form was arguably the one best suited for close combat!

**Wildcard Form "Camel" has been activated.**

**While this Wildcard Form is active the following passive skills are active:**  
**[Wild force Kicking]**  
**[Wild Adrenaline Surge]**

**Wild force Kicking**  
**Exponentially amplifies the power and damage of leg based attacks and abilities. Will automatically balance you.**

**Wild Adrenaline Surge**  
**Increases your ability to sense danger so greatly that it borders on something akin to precognition. Sense of pain is numbed. Evasive ability has been increased.**

His aura condensed itself tightly around his body.

The pain of his injures faded but didn't completely disappear.

His body felt lighter than before.

Unlike with the "Bull" Form before, this Wildcard Form did not use his aura to protect him.

Rather, everything he had was focused into being able to deal as much damage as possible!

This Wildcard Form was based on Verethragna's fourth incarnation, the [Camel], which granted combat skills were beyond human ability. Rather, it provided him with skills were swift as a savage beast, controlling his perceptive body, striking out with powerful kicking attacks!

Godou ran at Knite, surprising him by dragging the battle into close quarters.

"Hahahaha have you finally decided to stop running Godou!"

Laughing happily at his efforts, Knite made a stance, reading himself.

Godou also made his move.

With great speed, he aimed a kick at Knite's legs.

Extending his heel along the way, Godou aimed a strike to shatter his opponent's kneecaps.

However, as befitting of the martial prowess he had displayed before Knite simply took a slight step backwards, easily escaping the range of the kick.

Due to this being the smallest necessary backstep, he was able to switch to offense immediately without the slightest instant of delay.

Knite attacked with a simple straight punch. Simple but when backed with his high base stats it was a truly terrifying attack.

Godou had no knowledge of martial arts.

However, relying on the "Camel"'s passives, Godou evaded successfully.

The instant before Knite at executed this attack, Wild Adrenaline Surge allowed him to detect the intention of Knite's attack.

Additionally, it had automatically moved his body out of the way for him.

Similarly, the Wild Force Kicking corrected his posture allowing him to quickly regain his balance.

Godou immediately counter attacked with a kick to the side.

Knite blocked it with his elbow. Simultaneously, he aimed a savage counter at Godou's upper body.

Sensing that Wild Force Adrenaline alone would not be able to evade the attack, Godou forcefully kicked himself backwards.

Godou evaded Knite's punch by falling to the ground, and then maintaining that lying down posture, bounced his lower body up and kicked at Knite's body.

"Ho... Your movements have changed again. Just how many different abilities do you have? Adapting to your opponent's power and situation like some wild beast. Hahaha You are indeed a worthy opponent! "

Evading the kick, Knite praised him.

Carefully examining Godou who was lying on the ground, Knite was not deliberately showing off nonchalance, but only to clarify his ability.

Compared to his domineering attacks, his caution was even more terrifying instead.

Slowly, Godou got up.

A furry of movement!

Godou flinched and leapt to the side.

Knite closed the distance between them with a movement skill and- At least that was the impression that had Godou had gotten.

STOMP!

However, Knite stomped hard on the ground, stopping his rush.

"Ha ha ha ha! I thought it was strange that you seemed to be moving before I did. Were you hiding some ability that lets you mind read or see the future Godou? "

How sharp. Within the exchange of a few blows, Knite had managed to guess one of Godou's abilities. However, in response to Knite's question, Godou gave a vague answer.

"Maybe. Want to find out?"

Knite seemed pleased with his answer.

"It seems that feints will still work on you though. Humph! Very well! Here I come!"

With a roar full of fighting spirit, Knite charged at Godou for real this time.

In the split second when Knite's limbs began to move, Godou's reflexes automatically reacted. Boosted by the effects of the "camel", Godou dodged feints and real attacks without distinction.

Taking any attack now would be a death sentence in Godou's current condition as he prioritised on dodging.

In the instant Knite unleashed a middle punch, Godou's body stepped lightly to the side to evade.

When Knite stepped forward for a heavy punch, Godou coordinated with his motions and stepped forward to counterattack with his knee.

If Knite chose to counter this incoming attack, Godou would then crouch down and attack Knite's pivot foot.

Such a battle took place between two fighters with distinctly different combat forms.

Courageously fair and square with orthodox movements. That was how Knite fought in close combat.

In contrast, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Godou's beast-like movements which relied heavily on skill assistance as on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Despite this, neither party could land a clean hit in their fierce exchange.

Godou's Health gradually regenerated. However, what little health he regained quickly ended up being lost from damage from glancing blows and blocks.

Meanwhile whatever damage he managed to do to Knite seemed insignificant because of Knite's vast amount of Health Points.

Thus, with his naturally good dynamic vision and concentration, stacked with the time perception of high agility, danger perception of Survival Instinct as well was the auto correction features of Wild Adrenaline Surge and Wild Force Kicking, Godou fought Knite to a stalemate.

Time passed by.

And their situation remained practically unchanged.

However, there was one thing that had changed, by now their mana had regenerated to a point where skills, magic and elemental attacks could be used once again.

"I must commend you for lasting so long against me! However, the end is nigh. Remember! Physical combat is not my only way of fighting! "

Mana started to converge at Knite's hands.

Godou trembled. If that was case, he might not last.

He had rushed in for a battle of close combat because the "Camel" was only suited to an exchange of physical blows.

That was how he managed to maintain an even battle. However, if other abilities were mixed into it—

A sudden epiphany.

Would Knite take the bait? No it has to work!

Extinguishing all of his doubts, Godou leapt away.

He had to act fast!

**You have deactivated Divine Wildcard Decree.**

**Divine Wind Decree has activated.**

**+ 230% to all stats**  
**+ 224% to all stats due to the effects of Gift of the Origin**

**The following skills are available:**  
**Teleport**  
**Body of Wind**  
**Storm Summoning Ritual**

**Max duration: Infinite due to being in the Immortal Realms**

Body of Wind could not be used in his current state because his Health was too low. The skill consumed his Health in percentage values instead of absolute values so Godou would die upon activated.

Nevertheless, Godou abandoned the "camel" to perform his strategy.

His aura changed from crimson to dark purple and lashed out wildly.

"This aura! I remember it. Have you finally run out of other options Godou?"

Knite stopped whatever he was doing to watch Godou's movements.

Relying on his analysis of Knite's personality, Godou took the gamble.

He activated the skill that he had never used before.

"Storm Summoning Ritual!"

The skill had previously been locked because his Divinity stat was too low. Right now Godou could use it.

Godou knew practically nothing about this skill other than the fact that it had immense elemental power.

Thus, he was not naïve enough to believe than he would be able to control an unknown skill instantaneously.

However, desperate times called for desperate measures!

A massive flow surge of mana and Divine Power started to congregate around him…

The wind stirred and the ground trembled…

The surrounding temperature began to plummet as a chilling fog started to engulf them…

Using his experience creating lighting weapons, Godou used Mana Weapon Creation to force all this power into a form of a sword!

"Ho what power! in response to this it would only be for me proper to be to respond with the appropriate force!"

Seeing Godou bring out his thump card, Knite brought out the attack he had been saving up.

He leapt high in the air.

Massive influx of mana.

Flash of light.

A massive 10 metre long spear of condensed light formed in Knite's outstretched hand.

Evidently, Knite intended to take him head on.

A fearsome yet straight forward fighting style.

Godou held his supercharged sword like a baseball bat, his concentration rose to its utmost limit.

This was the crunch time!

He leapt at Knite who was now falling under gravity.

Knite made a motion was if to throw his spear. Godou scrutinised his every move, determined not to miss the timing.

A raging tempest of wind condensed into a sword.

A blazing inferno of light refined into a spear.

Another direct clash between the two tremendous elements–

Godou had no intention of doing such a thing!

Knite threw the spear of light.

A radiant beam of destruction like a spear thrown from a fire god!

Godou swung the sword.

In the same moment he activated his hidden thump card.

Teleport!

A skill which Knite had no prior knowledge of him having.

Godou teleported behind Knite and struck him with the sword.

**Collateral Damage has activated. **

**Your last AOE attack has been replicated.**

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The spear exploded on impact releasing a sea of white flames which covered half the realm.

The sword exploded on impact turning the other half into a barren wasteland of ice.

A raging conflagration of flames.

A devastating storm of ice.

The aftermath of the clash between these opposing elements was an unparalleled scene of destruction.

Knite stood in the centre of the devastated realm.

"Ha Ha Ha cough… That was cruel. Tricking me into using my strongest attack but not allowing me to use it… that was quite a contemptible tactic."

Knite tone was akin to someone who had bitten into an apple only to find that it was still sour.

"Shut it. Underhanded or not a win is a win isn't it. Now with this, you will leave me alone right?"

Without a doubt, Godou last ditch effort had worked beautifully. Knite's Health had reached 0.

Even as they spoke, Knite body was starting to dissolve into small particles of light.

Admittedly, Godou did feel quite despicable for having to resort to such a strategy. However, it was too much to ask for someone like him come out with a flawless victory.

"Although I was weakened, there are no excuses. It is the duty of the loser to listen to the victor. I will not come after you again for Lou's request…"

Knite voice faded as with those words as his body completely disappeared. No doubt returning to the Elemental Realm of Light.

**Due to the effects of Gift of the Origin, all experience gained in battle had been converted to fame.**  
**You have gained 239521 Fame**

**You have defeated Elemental Lord Candidate Knite.**  
**+ 20 Divinity**  
**+ 100 Fighting Spirit**  
**+ 5000 fame**

**You have gained a title: Fake Pacifist**  
**+ 10 all stats**  
**+ You will attract strong opponents**

**Quest complete.**  
**You have answered Knite challenge and emerged victorious.**

**Rewards:**  
**+ The God of Light Lou will no longer make any attempts to get revenge on you**  
**+ You have earned Knite's respect**  
**+ Chaos Origin Coat has been obtained**

**Divine Power Control Mastery has levelled up**

**Due to extensive damage, this temporary realm is starting to collapse.**

So it was finally over.

Cracks started to appear in the distorted sky. Godou felt the Dive Power supporting his temporary fluctuate wildly. It was probably a good idea to get out of here quickly.

Godou collected the drops Knite had left behind. Among them was a gold, bracelet, what looked like elemental essence and several other objects Godou didn't recognise.

He looked in the distance and saw that the church of Freya replica had somehow managed to survive the clash widespread destruction caused by the battle.

Though looking around, it seemed that the church of Freya was the only thing that remained standing in this replicated city.

Everything else was in ruins. So much damage had been done by their various attacks that it was practically an indescribable scene of destruction.

Had this fight taken place in the actual city… Godou shivered at that thought.

Conversely, most of Godou's equipment was destroyed or close to being permanently destroyed as a result of the damage he had taken in the fight.

Godou remembered a skill activating on its own the moment he struck Knite.

Collateral damage huh…

It had an ominous sounding name but it had its uses. Godou wasn't quite sure if Knite would have died if collateral damage hadn't activated.

Oh well, thinking about it wouldn't change anything so Godou simply let the motion slip form his mind.

Now that the battle was over, Godou felt his spirits lift and he returned to his usual easy going attitude.

Thus he returned to the mortal realm.

It seemed for once Godou had been able to fight without causing major damage to anything important.

Realm of the Overlord.

It turned out to be a pretty convenient skill.

Upon exiting the realm, town of Tellap was struck by a freak earthquake.

Major damage was caused to many buildings and 2 of the town walls partially collapsed.

However, by now the monster army had been defeated and miraculously, no-one died, though several were severely injured.

**Due to the mortal realm being closely linked to the immortal realms, Realm of the Overlord has caused a freak earthquake to occur, symbolic of the damage done to part of the immortal realms that was based on this location.**

**Collateral Damage has levelled up!**

**Collateral Damage has levelled up!**

**….**

"..."


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: All rights to characters/settings from Campione/LMS belong to their respective authors etc.

Vol 2 Epilogue

In the Elemental Realm of Light…

Castor diligently directed the flow of power in the realm, stabilising it.

A glowing figure that shone with white light.

Fundamentally, Castor's overall features were the same as Knite's.

However, unlike Knite who appeared to be male, Castor's figure was distinctly female with an almost gentle looking appearance.

Elementals were a completely gender neutral race.

Those who knew the correct techniques were able to manipulate their body's appearance in that regard at will.

After having her fierce battle with a certain Divine Saint in the town of Naidiriv, Castor though, it was time for a change of pace and so changed her appearance.

Strictly speaking, their battle really couldn't be considered fierce though. Her opponent had been holding back an immense level of power which he only used for his very last attack. The fact that her opponent had also been diverting his attention away to prevent her from escaping as well as blocking out the Elemental Lord of Light made the defeat sting.

Although Castor was a battle manic on the level of Knite, she still had pride in being the strongest light elemental in existence excluding the Elemental Lord.

She felt a surge of aura as Knite returned, evidently he had been killed as well.

Castor signed.

She had warned Knite against recklessly attacking with his damaged body but like a child eager to play with a brand new toy he had gone off anyway.

Looks like Lou's revenge would be called off completely now.

Hopefully, this defeat would finally knock some sense into him.

However, such hopes were crushed as the first words Knite spoke when his body had reformed were:

"Hey Castor you fought against a Divine Saint right? Did you notice something off with his aura?"

"No why do you ask?"

Her reply could be described as cautious at best. It looks like the task was up to her again.

"Hmmm, then those other two in the realm… interesting…"

Noticing that Knite had started to walk off to somewhere, Castor quickly called out.

"Wait just where do you think you're going?"

"Me? I going to create a spell to break into- I mean… I am going to quietly recuperate from my injuries."

A dangerous aura appeared around Castor, contrasting greatly with her gentle appearance.

"Hmmm, what are you talking about? You have to repair the Elemental Realm now…."

She quickly trapped Knite in a prison of light as he tried to escape.

Knite struggle against the prision but couldn't break out. Of course, there was a large gap between the level of strength between an elemental that reformed a few hours ago and one that had reformed just then.

"Wha? This is bullying! I'm still weak! Doing that sort of task right after reforming feels weird. Plus it's boring! Have mercy!"

"Mercy! Who was the one who made me do such a task right after reforming! And also, I heard about the stuff you were doing in that town. What the hell were you thinking directly interfering with a siege in progress. Do you know how many complaints we have been getting about your actions? The only reason we were allowed to even go to the mortal realm was because we promised not to harm anyone other than Lou's target! Did you forget it! You forgot it didn't you!"

A several hour long lecture about not causing trouble in the mortal realm began was Castor vented on Knite.

In the end, it seemed that no major battle involving Kusanagi Godou could be concluded without some sort of tragic disaster falling upon his surroundings.

The aftermath of both the siege and the freak earthquake that had been caused by Realm of the Overlord had caused the town of Tellap to fall into a sea of confusion.

Unable to help, or rather, he had lost the will to try anything at this point, Godou logged out.

He got out of the capsule, exhausted.

It was currently Sunday night.

He checked the time and was surprised to find that it was actually quite late.

A weekend completely spent playing a game.

In some aspects this was a fairly normal recreational activity for people his age.

It could be described as both an interesting and distressing experience in some ways.

Godou didn't know whether to be thankful or angry at that idiotic Doni for forcing him to play it.

However, Godou decided right there and then that he wouldn't be making a habit of this. He had the nagging suspicion that if he did, the reactions of people close to him would not be easy to contain.

Not realising that it was already too late to worry about that, Godou went to bed.

The next morning, Godou had to endure harsh nagging from the little sister who was aware of his weekend activities which bordered on being anti-social.

Coincidentally, a certain silver haired knight who was waiting outside of his house to go to school with him also overheard this conversation and was keen to express her opinion on that matter.

Later on, a certain brown haired miko who cared too much about others also joined the fray.

Meanwhile, a certain blonde devil watched the scene with evident amusement before pressing him to confess in great detail all the activities he had done with the intensity of a wife interrogating an irresponsible womanising husband who disappeared for a few days.

Thus, the troubled daily life this young godslayer continued.


End file.
